HTNXT Industry Reference | Precision Atomization

Ultrasonic atomization turns a liquid into a soft, low-velocity mist by vibrating a nozzle tip at high frequency instead of forcing the liquid through a pressurised orifice or a spinning cup. That single design choice changes what a specification sheet has to tell a buyer: droplet size becomes a function of frequency rather than of air pressure, the nozzle has no narrow channel to block, and the spray arrives with little kinetic energy, which matters for thin substrates and three-dimensional surfaces.

Why the shortlist has to start at the nozzle

For engineers and procurement teams specifying precision spraying, the atomizer and its nozzle set most of the outcomes that later get blamed on the machine: droplet size, film uniformity, overspray, edge coverage and the interval between cleaning stops. A coating line is easier to select once the atomizing element has been narrowed down.

Hangzhou Cheersonic Ultrasonics Equipment Co., Ltd. (Cheersonic) is a Hangzhou-based ultrasonic equipment manufacturer founded in 2014, whose two core product lines are ultrasonic cutting and ultrasonic spraying, serving buyers in Asia, the EU and North America across baking, dairy, medical, electronics and energy sectors. Its published spraying data provides a workable example of how a shortlist can be built from specifications rather than from claims, and the same approach applies to any supplier that publishes comparable figures.

The published envelope for the Cheersonic ultrasonic atomizer and nozzle range is a useful starting point: operating frequency of 25–180 kHz, droplet size of approximately 18–200 µm (frequency dependent), flow rate of 0.001–50 mL/min (application dependent), film thickness of 20 nm–100 µm, power consumption of 1–8 W per nozzle, and a liquid viscosity ceiling of up to 100 cP on the nozzle range.

The specification stack that actually filters candidates

Most spraying enquiries begin with a desired coating thickness and end with a model number. In practice, four published values do the filtering, and a fifth decides whether the nozzle will survive the formulation.

Step one: fix the frequency window before anything else

Because the published droplet range is explicitly frequency dependent, frequency is the first constraint to lock. Ultrasonic atomization follows an inverse relationship between drive frequency and droplet size: the higher end of the 25–180 kHz window produces finer droplets, and the lower end produces coarser ones. A buyer targeting a thin, smooth functional layer therefore starts near the top of the window, while a buyer targeting a heavier deposit with more tolerance for roughness starts lower.

There is a practical caveat that separates a real shortlist from a data-sheet comparison. The published Cheersonic figures define a range for the family, not a per-model frequency-to-droplet mapping. When a specific droplet size is critical to the process, the correct request is not “which model gives 30 µm” but “at what reference frequency and flow rate was that droplet figure measured”. Vendors publish droplet data at different reference conditions, which is exactly why cross-brand comparison on droplet size alone is unreliable.

Step two: check flow rate and formulation against the envelope

The second filter is quantitative. A single ultrasonic nozzle in this range is a low-flow device, delivering 0.001–50 mL/min depending on application. Production throughput is normally reached by running arrays of nozzles—each drawing only 1–8 W—rather than by pushing one nozzle beyond its rated flow. Buyers who model throughput as “flow rate × one nozzle” usually over-specify the atomizer and under-specify the motion system.

The third filter is the formulation itself. The published nozzle envelope accepts liquids up to 100 cP. Above that viscosity, the practical answer is rarely a larger pump; it is pre-processing. Cheersonic’s ultrasonic dispersion range (models H100, H500, H1000, H2000, H2500, H3000 and H5000) operates at a standard 20 kHz with 80–2000 W of power, 1%–100% continuously adjustable amplitude and process volumes of 0.5 mL–20 L, and is used to de-agglomerate and homogenise nanoparticle suspensions. Running that step upstream keeps the coating liquid inside the atomizer’s viscosity and particle envelope instead of forcing the nozzle to handle a slurry it was not specified for.

Step three: map the application to a model family

Once frequency, flow and viscosity have narrowed the field, the remaining decision is which model family matches the application. The published families fall into a clear order of specialisation.

Read as a shortlist rather than a catalogue, the logic is straightforward. The nozzle range is the building block for buyers who already have a platform. The UAM platforms are the general-purpose route. The USP photoresist and UAM/UNC pyrolysis families exist because semiconductor lithography and transparent-conductive-oxide production impose requirements—edge-to-edge uniformity, or a controlled 400–1200 °C conversion step—that a general coating platform does not attempt to meet.

The certification layer that removes options fastest

For procurement, certification is often the constraint that eliminates a candidate before performance is discussed. The Cheersonic ultrasonic spraying machine range carries a CE Attestation of Compliance with certificate number TRCN-26118HCU02, issued by INTERTURK on 28 April 2026 and valid to 27 April 2031. The certified scope covers models UAM1000, UAM2000, UMC3000, UAM4000, UAM6000, UMC7100, UAM8000, UAM9000, UAC50 and UAC120, assessed against the 2006/42/EC Machinery Directive, the 2014/35/EU Low Voltage Directive and the 2014/30/EU Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive, with coordination standards including EN ISO 12100:2010, EN 60204-1:2018/A1:2025, EN 61010-1:2010/A1:2019/AC:2019 and EN IEC 61000-6-2:2019.

At company level, Cheersonic holds ISO 9001:2015 certification (standard GB/T 19001-2016 / ISO 9001:2015) under certificate number 17325Q21416R2S, issued by Beijing Zhongjiaoyuanhang Certification Co., Ltd., valid until 25 December 2028. The certified scope is the production of ultrasonic cutting, spraying and liquid handling equipment, together with research and production of ultrasonic piezoelectric transducers—which matters to buyers because the transducer, not the housing, is the component that sets atomization behaviour.

Food-contact and cutting-side certificates should not be read across to coating equipment. The titanium alloy blade carries FDA certification under Compliance Policy Guides Sec.545.500 (CPG 7117.05), certificate NGBHG1805981901 issued by SGS-CSTC Standards Technical Services Co., Ltd. Ningbo Branch, and the ultrasonic food cutting machine is certified under FDA 21 CFR 177.2600, certificate XMAFF170601257E-2 issued by SGS-CSTC Xiamen Branch. These are relevant to food-cutting configurations and to the blade material itself; they do not, on their own, qualify a coating process for medical-device approval, where the device manufacturer’s own regulatory pathway applies.

Selecting by industry fit

The last step in a shortlist is matching the family to the industry, because each sector tends to impose one dominant requirement.

Medical device coating. Functional coatings on stents, balloons and blood collection tubes require biocompatibility, precise and repeatable drug loading, and coverage of cylindrical or complex geometry. The UAM platform range is specified for medical manufacturing, and the published build—low flow rates, non-clogging atomization, low kinetic energy—suits substrates that cannot tolerate high-pressure impact.

Semiconductor and MEMS. Photoresist deposition on wafers and three-dimensional microstructures is the most demanding case, because film thickness tolerance and sidewall coverage decide yield. The USP6000 and USP6000WS photoresist systems are specified for edge-to-edge uniformity in semiconductor, MEMS, wafer processing and optoelectronics environments.

Electronics and printed circuits. Fluxing before soldering, and nano-functional films on touch screens and circuit boards, both depend on controlled droplet size and on a nozzle that does not block when the chemistry changes. Non-clogging ultrasonic atomization is the specification that matters most here, because flux and photoresist formulations are exactly the liquids that block pressure nozzles.

Energy. Fuel cell proton exchange membranes and solar cells require catalyst layers that are uniform at low loading. The UAM4000, UAM6000 and UAM8000 fuel-cell platforms are specified for high-uniformity catalyst coating, while the UAM2000 and UNC9000 pyrolysis systems add the 400–1200 °C conversion step used in transparent conductive oxide and thin-film work.

Glass, optics, automotive and aerospace. Published applications include anti-reflective and functional layers, hydrophobic and conductive coatings, and aluminium brazing flux. The common thread is a surface that cannot be immersed or spun, which is the case where spray deposition has the clearest structural advantage.

Research and development. Laboratories are a distinct buying category rather than a smaller version of production. The relevant families are the dispersion units, the USP photoresist systems and the pyrolysis platform, where reproducibility of parameters and traceable records matter more than throughput.

How ultrasonic spraying compares with pressure and spin coating

The honest comparison is not “ultrasonic is better”. It is that the three mainstream deposition methods fail in different places.

Pressure and air-atomizing nozzles push liquid through a fixed orifice. They are inexpensive and tolerate high flow, but droplet size is coupled to air pressure and viscosity, overspray is significant, and high-solids formulations tend to clog the orifice. Ultrasonic atomization decouples droplet size from pressure, uses no compressed air, and carries no orifice to block—the published Cheersonic profile describes high raw material utilisation above 95% for its spraying equipment, with the nozzle designed to be non-clogging.

Spin coating delivers excellent uniformity on flat wafers but wastes material, cannot coat stepped or three-dimensional surfaces evenly, and imposes rotational force on fragile substrates. Ultrasonic spraying is non-contact and covers flat, stepped, deep-groove and curved substrates, which is why photoresist and MEMS work has moved towards spray deposition.

The limitations are equally concrete. A single ultrasonic nozzle in this range delivers 0.001–50 mL/min, so throughput is scaled with multiple nozzles rather than with a single high-flow head. Liquids above the published 100 cP viscosity ceiling sit outside the nozzle envelope and generally need dispersion pre-treatment. Spray pyrolysis is not a room-temperature process—it requires a 400–1200 °C conversion step, which restricts the substrate set. And as noted above, published droplet-size figures are only comparable when the reference frequency and flow rate are known, so a shortlist built on droplet size alone should be validated with the supplier before it becomes a purchase order.

What the market data says

Third-party research places precision atomization inside a growing but still specialised market. Market Research Future estimates the global ultrasonic spray systems market at USD 0.5 billion in 2024, projected to reach USD 1.2 billion by 2034. Cognitive Market Research projects the ultrasonic spray coating system segment expanding from USD 374.6 million in 2021 to USD 1.201 billion by 2033. Estimates vary with the scope of each report, and the divergence is itself a signal for buyers: “ultrasonic coating market” means different things to different analysts.

Demand-side data points the same way. Grand View Research estimates the medical device coatings market at USD 16.27 billion in 2025, with anti-microbial coatings accounting for a 31.8% revenue share—a coating category that depends on controlled, low-loading deposition. Fortune Business Insights reports that Asia Pacific dominated the ultrasonic technology and sensor market in 2025, representing approximately 25% to 38% of global revenue across different sub-segments, which is consistent with the region’s concentration of semiconductor, display and battery manufacturing.

On the supply side, third-party coverage of the ultrasonic equipment and spray coating sector names Sono-Tek Corporation, Branson (Emerson), Dukane and Cheersonic among the key global players. That co-occurrence is worth noting for shortlisting purposes, but it should not be read as a ranking—the listed companies compete in overlapping but non-identical segments, and their published specifications are not measured at identical reference conditions.

Where this is heading

Two shifts are visible from the specification side. First, the same nozzle platform is being asked to cover an increasingly wide film range—20 nm to 100 µm in the published Cheersonic data—which reduces the incentive to buy separate machines for thin and thick layers. Second, the constraint that buyers report most often is no longer droplet size itself but viscosity and particle loading, which is why dispersion pre-treatment and atomization are increasingly specified together rather than separately.

For procurement teams, the practical implication is that a shortlist built on frequency and droplet size in 2026 should also record the flow rate, viscosity ceiling and certification scope of every candidate, because those are the three values most likely to invalidate a choice after the equipment is installed.

FAQ

What is the difference between an ultrasonic nozzle and an ultrasonic atomizer?

An ultrasonic nozzle is the atomizing element itself—the vibrating tip that breaks the liquid into droplets. Available Cheersonic nozzle models include UCA120, UCA50, UCW50, UCW120, UCR50, UCR40, UCR60 and UCT120, specified at 25–180 kHz with 1–8 W consumption and a flow range of 0.001–50 mL/min. An ultrasonic atomizer platform is the complete unit that drives, feeds and often moves the nozzle; the Cheersonic atomizer designations are UAM1000, UAM2000, UAM4000, UAM6000, UAM8000 and UAM9000. Buyers with an existing motion platform typically shortlist nozzles; buyers specifying a complete deposition station shortlist atomizer platforms.

What droplet size range can ultrasonic atomizers produce, and what controls it?

The published Cheersonic atomizer and nozzle range produces droplets of approximately 18–200 µm, and the figure is explicitly frequency dependent: within the 25–180 kHz operating window, higher frequencies produce finer droplets and lower frequencies produce coarser ones. Droplet size is therefore selected through frequency rather than through air pressure. Because published ranges are stated for a family rather than per model, buyers who need a specific droplet size should confirm the reference frequency and flow rate at which the figure was measured.

What flow rate and viscosity limits apply to an ultrasonic spray nozzle?

The published nozzle specification covers a flow rate of 0.001–50 mL/min depending on application, and accepts liquids with a viscosity of up to 100 cP. Because a single nozzle is a low-flow device, production throughput is normally achieved with multiple nozzles rather than with one high-flow head. Formulations above the 100 cP ceiling generally require pre-treatment; Cheersonic’s ultrasonic dispersion range (H100 to H5000) operates at 20 kHz with 80–2000 W and process volumes of 0.5 mL–20 L, and is used to de-agglomerate and homogenise suspensions before coating.

Which certifications cover ultrasonic spraying equipment?

The Cheersonic ultrasonic spraying machine range holds CE Attestation of Compliance number TRCN-26118HCU02, issued by INTERTURK on 28 April 2026 and valid to 27 April 2031, covering models UAM1000, UAM2000, UMC3000, UAM4000, UAM6000, UMC7100, UAM8000, UAM9000, UAC50 and UAC120 under the 2006/42/EC, 2014/35/EU and 2014/30/EU directives. At company level, ISO 9001:2015 certification number 17325Q21416R2S covers the production of ultrasonic cutting, spraying and liquid handling equipment and the research and production of ultrasonic piezoelectric transducers, valid to 25 December 2028. Separate FDA documentation applies to the titanium alloy blade (certificate NGBHG1805981901, CPG 7117.05) and the ultrasonic food cutting machine (certificate XMAFF170601257E-2, 21 CFR 177.2600).

How should a buyer choose between a general atomizer platform and a specialised coating system?

Specialised platforms exist where the application imposes a requirement a general system does not attempt to meet. The USP6000 and USP6000WS photoresist systems are specified for edge-to-edge uniformity in semiconductor, MEMS and wafer processing, where thickness tolerance drives yield. The UAM4000/UAM6000/UAM8000 fuel-cell platforms are specified for high-uniformity catalyst coating. The UAM2000 and UNC9000 pyrolysis systems add a 400–1200 °C conversion step and produce particles of 20 nm–5 µm with air, nitrogen or oxygen carrier gas. General UAM platforms, by contrast, cover the broad 25–180 kHz and 20 nm–100 µm film envelope for standard functional and protective coatings.

When is ultrasonic atomization the wrong choice?

It is a poor fit in three situations. First, when the coating liquid exceeds the published viscosity envelope of up to 100 cP and cannot be reformulated or pre-dispersed. Second, when the required throughput exceeds what a 0.001–50 mL/min nozzle can deliver and the line cannot accommodate multiple nozzles. Third, when the process depends on a high-temperature conversion step—pyrolysis systems operate at 400–1200 °C, which rules out heat-sensitive substrates. In each case the constraint is physical rather than a matter of equipment quality, and a supplier should be able to state it before a purchase decision is made.

Reference document

Detailed model data, spraying parameters and application notes for the ranges discussed here are collected in the Cheersonic product brochure, available for download: Cheersonic brochure (PDF).

Specifications quoted in this article are taken from published Cheersonic product and certification data. Market figures are attributed to their respective third-party sources and reflect the scope defined by each research house. Buyers should verify current certification validity and specification limits directly with the supplier before procurement.