Mechanical Watch Movements & Vintage Clockwork Small Parts
Challenge
A horology service workshop overhauled mechanical watch movements and small vintage clock mechanisms: mainplates, bridges, gear wheels, pallet forks, escapements, barrels, springs and screw sets. Aged lubricant hardened in jewel settings and barrel walls; handling oil sat on finned bridges; clockwork springs carried tarnish dust and storage residue. Warm cleaning could affect blued-steel screws, fragile hairsprings and glued chronograph parts; hand cleaning with pegwood was precise but slow and inconsistent across high-jewel movements.
Solution
The workshop adopted ACMESONIC Ultrasonic Cleaner units without heating: SUS304 primary, SUS316L option for specialized rinse chemistry, 28 kHz for heavily gummed barrel and mainspring housings, 40 kHz for bridges/gear wheels/screws, 68 kHz for pallet stones and micro-jewel seats, adjustable power, degas mode and semi mode for hairsprings, blued screws and adhesive-assembled complications. Parts were disassembled to component level and placed in partitioned movement baskets by material family.
Outcome
Hardened lubricant removed from barrel walls and jewel settings without heat-softening old oil prematurely. Gear-tooth roots, bridge chamfers and screw slots de-oiled uniformly. Hairsprings, blued screws and vintage glue-assembled parts cleaned safely in semi mode; repeatable ambient recipes shortened movement strip-down rework versus fully manual pegwood cleaning.
