Ultrasonic cleaner and surgical instrument case

Claim 1

An ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning medical instruments and apparatuses comprising, a sink including a floor and four upright walls defining an open top, means for circulating filtered cleaning liquid through said sink, a plurality of ultrasonic transducers carried by said sink, said transducers being disposed at spaced apart and staggered positions about the interior of said sink, means for actuating said transducers so as to emit ultrasonic waves therefrom for transmission through said liquid, a cradle carried by said sink oscillatable among various angles with respect to the sink and the disposed transducers, including a frame, a plurality of retainers affixed to said frame, means for oscillating said frame among said angles with respect to said sink and transducers in a back and forth rocking motion through a semicircular path within said liquid cutting across the paths of the ultrasonic waves emitted from said transducers to thereby minimize the effects of null points of the ultrasonic waves in the cleaning liquid, a case for carrying said medical instruments and apparatuses including top and bottom box portions hingedly attached to define an enclosure therebetween in a closed position, and walls of said box having holes therein to allow ultrasonic waves to penetrate said enclosure, said case being removably mounted between said retainers in a fixed position with respect to said frame and oscillatable therewith, means for carrying said instruments removably mounted within said enclosure, said means comprising a plurality of instrument receiving members for mounting and holding said instruments in open positions for maximum surface exposure to said ultrasonic waves and a plurality of locking members for locking said instruments in said open positions, each locking member being removably attached to at least one of said receiving members and, means for holding said top and bottom box portions together in said closed position for retaining said instruments in locked positions therewithin.