Nickel-plated parts in an ultrasonic cleaner

[KongaMan]

I've got a ongoing need to clean lots of small, plated parts. The largest parts are maybe 4"x1"x1"; there are lots of bends, grooves, crevices, and what-not. Some of them are nickel plated. I'm not trying to strip them for a subsequent plating operation; I just want to remove accumulated mung and tarnish.

I'm considering an investment in a small ultrasonic cleaner. However, I have heard that ultrasonic cleaners will strip nickel plating. This leads to several questions:
- Is that true?
- Will the ultrasonic cleaner by itself clean off tarnish?
- What kind of cleaning solution is good for this?
- Do chrome and nickel need different solutions?
- Any recommendations for a good, small cleaner? Any features to look for?

Thanks much.

[lcaswell]

This is not true...unless you're using some sort of sulfuric acid solution in your ultrasonic cleaner of course. This goes for any plating...ultrasonic cleaning soltions are not usually acidic, so won't harm metals (if they did, they wouldn't be very popular)

Any solution sold as an ultrasonic solution should work fine.

[KongaMan]

Thanks much for the reply. I couldn't see how that would happen, but ya never know...