Chris,

Once upon a time I was the Technical Services Manager for The John Treiber Company, builder of
wave soldering and aqueous cleaning systems. We had spent great effort on studying the effects
of various drying techniques and came to an undisputable conclusion that I.R. does very little
for drying *UNLESS* the water is mechanically removed first. There are several sources for high
horsepower (10+) turbine blowers that, when properly retrofit into a system, can remove 100% of
the water without any I.R. whatsoever.

A simle test can prove this:

Get a precision scale (lab balance) and weigh a "clean" pcb(s).
Run it through the cleaner and weigh it again.
If water remains (and the scale is accurate enough... 1 milligram resolution or better) you will
see an increase in weight. Simple.
*IF* you see a decrease in weight from the original, there are 2 factors to consider:
1: The original weight may have been inaccurate due to contamination which was removed from the
board in the wash process.
2: he board could actually be "drier" than when it went in, i.e., relative humidity condensate
in original weight no longer present.
Eliminate these by running it again, record, compare.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you would like to discuss this further. We have
several retrofits in the field that have performed well beyond expectations in both drying and
mtbf.

Regards,

Ed Popielarski

QTA Machine
10 McLaren, Ste. D
Irvine, Ca. 92618

949-581-6601 Ph
949-581-2448 Fx
http://www.qta.net
Ask about our BGA Reballing system!

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