HP / Agilent figured out 3 decades ago that the use of IPA and a brush or 
swab to remove RMA flux residues caused more harm than good.  The active 
components of the flux spread all over the board, reducing insulation 
resistance that was especially harmful for high frequency circuits.  No matter 
what solvent you use, the manual nature of this cleaning process lowers your 
likelihood of a thorough cleaning job and increases your likelihood of leaving 
behind active or conductive material.  That was back in the TH days and now 
with SMT parts and low or no clearance parts, it's even more important to not 
spread activators into places where you can't get them out.  Field repair 
techs have no access to elaborate wash processes, and water-sensitive parts 
prevent these processes, too.  Our specs call for not cleaning rework or hand-
solder RMA flux residues as long as they are hard, not tacky and have not 
been disturbed.  This works for the environments where Agilent equipment. is 
used

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
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 or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/ContentPage.aspx?Pageid=E-mail-Forums for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------