Hi Bob,

When I worked in Allentown, PA we were in a 20,000 sq.ft. facility with
really high ceilings, which was heated with a gas fired space heater that
you normally see in large warehouse type of buildings during the winters,
and trying to keep the humidity up in such a large space was a challenge.
We bought some misting fans from some livestock supply company and I bought
a humidity controller from a company called Fogco, I think I got the
fogging nozzles for the misting rings on the fans from them too. We
supplied deionized water from the DI columns that we used for our inline
cleaner. Bev is right, I wished we had a RO system then, we still would get
a fine dust that would precipitate out from the fog about 10-20 feet out
from the fans with just the DI columns that we had. But it kept the
facility humidity within specs, and it wouldn't take long for the system to
kick in once that heater fired up! It would be just a few minutes after the
heater kicked on that the humidity fans would start producing a fog to
moisten things up. When you have a limited budget you do the best that you
can with what you have...

Steve

On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 8:34 AM, BEV CHRISTIAN <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Bob,
> When BlackBerry was still an electronics manufacturer, it used the misting
> systems. They are great IF:
> 1) They are properly maintained.
> 2) The water source is RO or distilled water.
>
> Now my lab had a separate misting system and the people who put it in
> place took, say we say, a couple of short cuts and the result was the salt
> that was deposited on our x-ray system incapacitated it.  My group had to
> use ion chromatography to track down where in the system the installers
> screwed up.  Sigh.
>
> Regards,
> Bev
>
> Sent from Mail for Windows 10
>
> From: Bob Wettermann
> Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2018 10:17 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [TN] Solder Paste and RH-Both Winter Dryness and Tropical
> Humidity Conditions
>
> Dear Technetters:
>
> Since it is winter in Chicago and much of the northern realms, the RH
> values are getting under 20% when the heat is on.
>
> Outside of ESD issues, board assemblers have the issues of solder paste
> drying out and not having enough active flux during the reflow cycle. This
> can even happen with WS fluxes that are very active.
>
> There are a handful of CMs in the great northern realms of MI, NY, MN and
> WI that are using misting systems (that come with their own set of
> problems) to keep the RH values higher in the winter months.
>
> What are others doing (outside of monitoring) to deal with this issue and
> solder paste printing?
>
> The opposite can be true on those very humid summer days when the past
> slumps easily.
>
> Thanks!
> --
> Bob Wettermann
> BEST Inc
>



-- 
Steve Gregory
Kimco Design and Manufacturing
Process Engineer
(208) 322-0500 Ext. -3133

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