Mike,

If you are looking for flux deposition at wavesolder, here are some tips:

OA water soluable fluxes are fairly easy to check by weight.  Since the
carrier in the flux is generaly IPA you will need to weigh the PCB after
the deposited flux has dried.  Some water based no-cleans are weighed wet.

 A general rule for the amount of deposition for an OA water soluable is
from 500 - 1500 mg/in^2.  The flux manufacturer will usually have a spec.
for your flux.

If you pick a sample board with a large enough area (the one that I use is
156 in^2) you can use a scale with an accuracy of 0.00g.

example (PCB area) X (500mg/in^2) X (mg to g conversion) = deposition g
         (156 in^2) X (500mg/in^2) X (10E-6g/1mg)=  0.78g

Doing the same calculation with the same PCB for 1500mg gives 2.34g

Once the upper and lower limits are establised you can experiment with your
fluxer settings to find out where in the range you currently run and
process checks can be done by weighing a pcb on a regular basis and
tracking the change in weight.

Dis-advantages to this method:

You will not know if the deposition is consistent over the pcb.
You will need to let the PCB dry for at least an hour and production
usually can't wait that long.

Hope this helps,

Good Luck!

Mark Bailey

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