Barry: Look carefully at the board using a 20X scope or better with good
lighting and inspect the board for items 1 and 2.

1. Is the white appearance on the top side, bottom side(wavesolder) or both
sides ?

2. Is the white appearance on the soldermask, the laminate, the solder
joints or some combination ?

3. If you apply localized heating such as a rework heatgun does the white
appearance go away ?

4. Do you use a saponifier in your wash ? concentration/temp ?

The answer to these will better define the cause which can be many things
from exposed soldermask filler to dried out surfactant in the flux.


regards

Michael Barmuta

Staff Engineer

Fluke Corp.

Everett WA

425-356-6076

-----Original Message-----
From: Barry Gallegos [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 11:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Laminate condition



Dear Sirs, Madams, Guru's.



I have an assembly that we processed thru SMT and then thru the wave solder
operations. Wave solder flux was with Alpha metals 856 water-soluble. The
assembly is exhibiting a white cloudy / milky appearance that looks almost
as if the laminate/solder mask has changed color. No matter how much we wash
this assembly, it will not go away.



Is this due to possible moisture in, around or under the solder mask /
laminate. What is it and  is it acceptable.




Any advice would be appreciated.




Yours truly, (wana-be guru.)



Barry Gallegos

Western Electronics.

208-377-1557

##############################################################
TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c
##############################################################
To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the body:
To subscribe:   SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name>
To unsubscribe:   SIGNOFF TECHNET
##############################################################
Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
information.
If you need assistance - contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or
847-509-9700 ext.5315
##############################################################