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How can I test ultrasonic transducers

julio_w

Apr 10, 2013
3
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Apr 10, 2013
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Hi All,

I am trying to build a large ultrasonic cleaning bath, I already bought 50 PZT transducers 60 Watts and 40 Khz each from a supplier on china, and I am going to buy a 3 Kw ultrasonic generator to connect all transducers in parallel.

So before buying the large generator I wanted to test the transducers one by one just to be sure that what i get is what i order, so I decided to buy from ebay one small ultrasonic cleaner of 50 Watts 40 Khz and then I was thinking in replacing the transducer with the new ones one by one and test.

So my question is how do I test? I know you can do the foil test but that will just tell me that there is ultrasound going on but I want to know the actual frequency of the transducer. So can I just buy a transducer receiver that cost around 2$ and connect at the terminals an oscilloscope? not even sure if that is possible.

Thanks for reading and I would appreciate your help.
 

Raven Luni

Oct 15, 2011
798
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Oct 15, 2011
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Piezo transducers pretty much only have one resonant frequency (or a narrow band). Any frequencies outside that band will be very weak (if detectable). Your 50W test unit will produce only the frequency it is designed to. So a test will give you 3 possible results:
- The transducer works
- The transducer does not work
- The transducer has a different resonant frequency than you expected.
 

julio_w

Apr 10, 2013
3
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
3
Piezo transducers pretty much only have one resonant frequency (or a narrow band). Any frequencies outside that band will be very weak (if detectable). Your 50W test unit will produce only the frequency it is designed to. So a test will give you 3 possible results:
- The transducer works
- The transducer does not work
- The transducer has a different resonant frequency than you expected.


Great, that is what i wanted to hear... thanks a lot.

My only concern is that i read on a forum that even if it is the same watts in the test device the transducer is likely to be different to the transducers that I do have and it seems that the voltage required to make a transducer work at its designed frequency varies. Is this right? or I am just over worrying?

Cheers...
 

john monks

Mar 9, 2012
685
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Mar 9, 2012
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685
Why not simply use one transducer as a transmitter and the other as a receiver and use a function generator at 40 kHz to supply one and verify you get a signal from the other? This way you can see if they at least work.
 

julio_w

Apr 10, 2013
3
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
3
Why not simply use one transducer as a transmitter and the other as a receiver and use a function generator at 40 kHz to supply one and verify you get a signal from the other? This way you can see if they at least work.

I found this schematic for a bat detector, they claim they can detect up to 100 khz and basically divide the frequency by 16 to get an audible signal...

BatDetSch.gif


So I was thinking that if that is true I could do something similar eliminating the frequency divider, ear plug, etc and if I attach an oscilloscope at the exit of IC2 i should be able to measure the frequency, am i right?
 

sirch

Dec 6, 2012
109
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Dec 6, 2012
Messages
109
If you just want to know if any utrasonic is being emitted and you have an oscilloscope then just connect one of the transducers directly to the 'scope and hold it close to the one under test, you should pick something up.
 
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