Hi!

The law is an ass! Logically, they should stop the sale and consumption
of all alcoholic liquor, as well. You could always try cleaning in
whisky!

Your best bet is to go water-soluble. Certainly, the OS-20 will be
classed as a VOC. What this law, and other VOC ones, in Europe as well
as in the USA, forget is that the effect of a VOC on the environment
depends on many factors, not the least of which are emissions. An open
bath of hot solvent is more emissive than a closed bath of a cold
solution of the same solvent. Then, not all solvents are equal in their
effect as an ozone smog precursor. The latter cannot be produced without
NOxs, as well, so that emissions in the middle of LA are more likely to
be serious than in the middle of the Mojave Desert (OK for the guys at
China Lake!) and most hydrocarbon solvents have a very short atmospheric
residence time, so that they are not going to roll down the hill into LA
from there!

As for the ionic contamination tester, the specs state quite clearly IPA
and nothing else, but the quantity used is so small that you must be
able to claim an essential use exemption. Anyway, testing is not
cleaning and you specifically state "for electronic cleaning".

Be comforted, no matter what you go for will be a better cleaner than
IPA! It may remove the thick of the rosin residues, but it is decidedly
not a good flux remover. If I were you, water-soluble is the answer.

Brian

> Bogert wrote:
>
> 11/11/2001
>
> Folks, the law makers in California are at it again.  Per South Coast
> Air Quality Management (SC AQMD) Rule 1171, the VOC solvent limits are
> lowered, again, starting in January 2002.  The amount of VOC in lb/gal
> for electronic cleaning is 0.83 for electronic apparatus as well as
> for repair cleaning.  I believe IP alcohol is around 6.55 lb/gal.
> Thus, IP alcohol is no longer allowed for electronic cleaning in
> California as of 1/1/2002.
>
> I am checking with California to see if this also means that use of IP
> in Ionic cleanliness testers is also dis-allowed.  Seems to me that we
> can consider these testers to be sccientific instruments which are
> exempt from the Rule 1171 solvent requirements.  This is what I am
> proposing to the SC AQMD.
>
> Does anyone out there have any experience with use of Dow Corning OS-2
> or OS-20 as a solvent to remove RMA flux in military applications?
> The company claims the solvents are replacements for IP alcohol.
> These solvents are Octamethyltrisiloxane based.

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