The Design Optimization of Ultrasonic Equipment for Chinese Traditional Medicine Extraction

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has made great contributions to the prosperity of China. Today both of TCM and western medicine are being used in providing medical and health services in China. TCM is accepted for its unique and abundant medical function. It is well known that the sonication is one of effective and economical techniques for material processing. Chinese traditional medicine extraction assisted by power ultrasound is a very important subject nowadays. To overcome some shortages of existing ultrasonic processors used for medicine extraction, the characteristics of ultrasonic propagation in the mixture of biomaterials and liquors are farther researched, and a new design method of ultrasonic biomaterial processor called self-circumrotated ultrasound cylinder is introduced in the paper. The design method has been used in the medicine manufacturing. Three techniques are used in the design of the self-circumrotated cylinder: (1) the ultrasonic field of multi-direction radiation is set up in the processor. (2) The multi-frequency ultrasound is used in the structure. (3) The auto-circumrotation is realized in the ultrasonic processor. Comparing with some same-type of ultrasonic processors, there are three advantages of the design at least: (1) ultrasonic intensity is stronger and the medicine extraction efficiency is 1.3-2.8 times as high as the efficiency of others. (2) The ultrasonic intensity is symmetrical in all over the processor. (3) The mechanical beater is replaced by the auto-circumrotation in the processor. It was proved that design of the ultrasonic equipment is optimized and the self-circumrotated ultrasound cylinder is more effective for Chinese traditional medicine extraction