Help.....  I have recently been assigned the task of justifing our water
wash system.
Here is what I know:

1) Spray over Spray Westkleen system
2) For some reason using softened water not DI.  The softening is
accomplished through sodium addidtives (got me going).

What I am expected to do:  Determine what is the effectiveness of the
process.  Justify why DI isn't used and why adding salt to the wash to
remove salt is ok.  Then determine the water surface tension and content
(hardness, contaminates present, etc)

*Kathy, somewhere in your process there is an accountant calling the shots.
Find him and shoot him before he does any more damage!!

Softened water is being used because a simple water softener is cheaper
than a good DI water system.  It costs less to generate softened water than
DI water.  Maintenance may be easier on a simple softener than a DI system.

But think about it.  Do you really want to be throwing salt water with
ionized sodium and chloride in it, at your sensitive assemblies.  Ask a
Navy man what happens to an assembly in a salt environment.  There is a ton
of evidence out there that chloride is death to electronics.  Using a
softener almost guarantees an efficient production of scrap.  The same can
be said of facilities that neutralize incoming water using hydrochloric
acid.  I shudder to think of it.

CSL might be able to help you setup a matrix to examine the residue with
softened water cleaning vs. DI water cleaning.  Their web site
(www.residues.com) may also have some cleaning articles showing tap vs RO
vs DI cleaning.

Doug Pauls
Rockwell

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send the following message: SET Technet NOMAIL
Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives
Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------