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IMPROVED CLEANING AS CO-SOLVENTS REPLACE 141B
Electronic Technicians not fazed by solvent phase-out
Electronic Technicians Ltd (ETL), which assembles printed circuit boards for the aerospace and general electronics industries, saw an improvement in cleaning quality and a reduction in reject rates after the installation of a Kerry co-solvent ultrasonic cleaning system.
The Microsolve 350 replaced a system that ran on 141B, a solvent phased out from January 2002. The new machine uses an environmentally friendly, specially blended mixture of 3M's
Novec HFE 71 IPA and a hydrocarbon solvating agent. While its forerunner required topping-up on a daily basis, the Microsolve 350 needs only a single weekly replenishment.
Populated boards undergo a two-stage cleaning process, followed by rinses in pure hydrofluoroether (HFE) and HFE vapour. The drying stage leaves them clean to military specification, ready for packaging. "Our previous cleaning system would often leave boards needing additional hand scrubbing," commented David Martin, PCB operator.
The cleaning system is guaranteed to remove fluxes, including no-clean fluxes, without the problematic white residues associated with traditional mono-solvent and semi-aqueous processes. The non-aggressive nature of the hydrocarbon solvating agent means that there are no material compatibility problems when cleaning populated boards. The co-solvent process also removes both the oily film that occasionally coats unpopulated boards received by ETL, as well as aged solder pastes on misprinted circuit boards.
The Microsolve system's low solvent consumption was a major attraction for ETL, as was its conformity to health and safety and environmental requirements. The reliability of Microsolve solvent cleaning systems also proved decisive.
Free component trials
Whether your interest is in blast, wash or ultrasonic cleaning equipment, we offer FREE component trials, with no obligation to buy. To contact Guyson International, call on +44 (0)1756 799911, fax +44 (0)1756 790213, or email info@guyson.co.uk.
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