element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet & Tria Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • About Us
    About the element14 Community
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Japan
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      •  Vietnam
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
Design Challenges
  • Challenges & Projects
  • More
Design Challenges
Forum MMM (Multifrequency, Modulated, and Multi-wave) Ultrasonic Technology
  • Forum
  • Documents
  • Polls
  • Files
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
Actions
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 6 replies
  • Subscribers 6 subscribers
  • Views 70 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

MMM (Multifrequency, Modulated, and Multi-wave) Ultrasonic Technology

Rick1234
Rick1234 1 day ago

Hello Element14 community!

My quest is to build an MMM ultrasonic water treatment system for use in the motel and laundromat industries.  

Basically, to ultrasonically negate the scaling ability of the minerals in the water before they can form on the inside of the pipes and heat exchangers walls.

The MMM paradigm greatly eases the normally strict mechanical ultrasonic interface to the target load ..... as the MMM generator constantly frequency "sweeps" and "optimizes" its effects on the scaling minerals in the water.    

My early thoughts:

PC control to set parameters (power, frequency sweep, modulation, etc)  +  Adaptive Digital Signal Processor (ADSP)  + Ultrasonic Power Driver  

Minimum ultrasonic "contact" time with the scaling minerals (calcium & magnesium)  during a max. 50 gpm water flow rate = 1.5 seconds

Ultrasonic transducer and horn to be of a "clamp-on" type design (ie: surrounding the water feed pipe)

The main attribute of MMM is its ability to "self-adapt" to any varying physical sonic envelope and load ..... on-the fly! (w/feedback loop sensor) 

Its my contention, that in this application, the sonic envelope (pipe) and load (water) is "fixed" and should afford a simpler software implementation script. 

Where to start?  (Note: i'm day one working with ultrasonics!)    

Can anyone recommend a preassembled factory evaluation ADSP board suitable for this application and an ultrasonic power driver board?  

Thank-you!

image

image

  • Sign in to reply
  • Cancel
Parents
  • michaelkellett
    michaelkellett 1 day ago

    I am extremely dubious that ultrasonic excitation of water in   pipe will have any effect at all on scaling downstream of the excitation area.

    Do you have any research data that suggests this actually works. I did some web searching and found lots of scammy looking companies selling ultrasonic scale preventers but I couldn't find a single reputable looking explanation of how it might work, let alone any data.

    This is a typical example:

    https://www.ultrasonicdescaling.com/technologies/the-physics-of-industrial-anti-scaling/

    See the amazing pulsing diagram near the start and look at the adjacent scale - red  = 10E6 microns = 1m.

    So it's garbage  -  1m displacement in water at 20kHz would need GW.

    The diagrams that you show are not convincing.

    You need to do some serious research and find some hard evidence that this idea will work before putting any effort into building one.

    And since it looks to me as if you'll be competing with some world class scammers as well as plenty of reputable companies making water softeners you'll need a lot more than just an idea to make a business.

    Good luck.

    MK

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
  • Rick1234
    Rick1234 13 hours ago in reply to michaelkellett

    Hello Michaelkelltt !    :  )     .... thank you for your reply!

    Can you capture pic of what graph your referring to?

    All the displacement graphs I see are in "um" and "mm"   ..... don't see any with "m".

    Thanks!

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
  • Rick1234
    Rick1234 8 hours ago in reply to Rick1234

    ......... while your responding:

    As I stated in my opening post " ..... negate the scaling ability of the minerals in the water before they can form on the inside of the pipes and heat exchangers" walls"

    "I am extremely dubious that ultrasonic excitation of water in pipe will have any effect at all on scaling downstream of the excitation area."  -MK

    I never said that it did!   :  (      ...... its the ultrasonically "nucleated" minerals  passing thru the water system (pipes, heat exchangers, etc) that can no longer produce scale! 

    The ultrasonic "contact" with the scaling minerals need only be for 1.5 seconds upstream of everything!

    Currently used commercial water treatment systems (TAC & NAC)  function by nucleation of the scale minerals as well. And that in of itself has a downstream "existing" scale removable ability! 

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
Reply
  • Rick1234
    Rick1234 8 hours ago in reply to Rick1234

    ......... while your responding:

    As I stated in my opening post " ..... negate the scaling ability of the minerals in the water before they can form on the inside of the pipes and heat exchangers" walls"

    "I am extremely dubious that ultrasonic excitation of water in pipe will have any effect at all on scaling downstream of the excitation area."  -MK

    I never said that it did!   :  (      ...... its the ultrasonically "nucleated" minerals  passing thru the water system (pipes, heat exchangers, etc) that can no longer produce scale! 

    The ultrasonic "contact" with the scaling minerals need only be for 1.5 seconds upstream of everything!

    Currently used commercial water treatment systems (TAC & NAC)  function by nucleation of the scale minerals as well. And that in of itself has a downstream "existing" scale removable ability! 

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
Children
  • michaelkellett
    michaelkellett 4 hours ago in reply to Rick1234

    There is evidence that TAC systems work although they are subject to serious issues with contamination.

    www.waterboards.ca.gov/.../ion_exchange_water_softeners.pdf

    There is some evidence that ultrasonics can reduce subsequent scaling but it was hard to find.

    https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/23/3428

    I could find nothing at all in terms of research data re. MMM - perhaps you can enlighten us.

    MK

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • Cancel
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2026 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube