In a message dated 04/07/2000 3:18:15 PM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Hi everyone,

 How does everyone clean their stencils?  We are a low to medium volume
 assembler that doesn't carry that many stencils on hand now, but we are
 slowly building up stock.  We now use stencils wipes to clean them, but I'm
 wondering if I should start thinking about other methods to clean them.
 Thanks for your help!!

 Jim West
 Manufacturing Engineer >>

Hi Jim!

Ultrasonic cleaners are the way to go. Smartsonics has been mentioned
already, but another vendor is PMR (http://www.pmrsystems.com). I had the
PMR-5000 at the last place I worked at. It was a nice machine and did the job
wonderfully. Not near as expensive as the others, but then again it doesn't
have all the "bells and whistles" that the other machines have...and in my
opinion, not needed.

The PMR has two tanks, a wash and a rinse tank. I had the evaporator with
mine, so nothing went down the drain. The cleaner has what's called a "solder
trap" and 2-ten micron filters that you would periodically filter the water
in the tanks through, which lengthened the time that you needed to completely
change the water.

I also used it to clean the baked on crap off my wave solder fingers when
they got gunky....only needed to sit in the cleaner for about 10-15 minutes
and they came out like they were brand new.

-Steve Gregory-

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