Ultrasonic cleaner steeping:
The ultrasonic cleaner (UC) is a device designed to clean jewelry and equally intricate objects. The way it works is, you fill its tank up with water, submerge your objects into it, and it will send out a vibration at ultrasonic frequency which agitates the water. This vibration is of small enough magnitude and high enough frequency that it will make your objects "shake" off dirts and gunks while remaining unscathed. Water molecules will also knock them off at high velocity and thus with much force. Makes sense?
When that kind of agitation happens, water molecules get accelerated, bump into each other harder and more often, thus also creating heat. Therefore, the juices inside the UC will be both heated up and shaken up at ultrasonic frequency. Molecules in juices get super accelerated, moving around more and thus mixing into each other more, which is essentially the purpose of steeping.
Some high school physics there, hope you guys havent forgotten.
As for using the UC to clean cartos: technically, that is possible. However, remember that your carto will be vibrating at extremely high frequency, so magnetic paint jobs on them will flake off almost instantly. I have an atty with matte black finish, after 7 seconds (yes, 7) in the UC, a big patch of black paint flaked off.