Hi Faz, You're in luck. I'm using Kester 186 and 186-18 RMA fluxes with their 5738 Dross Inhibiting Fluid. We do a mix of thick (150 mil) multilayer and not so think double sided boards and assemblies. We wave solder using an old (translation: museum quality) Hollis machine. First, we do a cascade wash with hand brushing in Trans LC (Trans 1, 2-Dichloroethlyne) which replaced Trichloroethylene (the environmentally bad stuff not the less bad stuff). I'm looking for a substitute. It cleans great but has health & safety issues I'd like to eliminate. If we were a bigger outfit I'd prefer an immersion spray washer if one exists for PCBs (hint hint). Depending on the board a cascade rinse in isopropyl alcohol can do the trick or skipping it all together. I've tried some other stuff but haven't found it yet, some are so aggressive they'll strip the silkscreen printing off or change the appearance of the board. I just hate when that happens. Next, we run the boards through our Tooltronics Ultra Clean II Aqueous Cleaner with Kyzen's Aquanox XJN chemistry at 25% strength (minimum). The boards get washed for 2 to 3 minutes (depends on the conveyor speed) at ~35 psi. Lighter stuff goes in baskets with lids. A two stage DI Water rinse for 3 - 4 minutes. Aquanox XJN is very good at rinsing clean and it takes a while to load up. We used to run Armakleen (before my time) but it never stayed active long enough to pay for itself. Plus it would scale the pipes up something awful. What supply we have left is used in one of our dish washers. Depending on the assembly, we also dry with compressed air (Nitrogrn line coming soon!) and store in Nitrogen cabinets. We're a small shop so I'm not sure how portable this info will be. Hans ~~~~~~~~ Hans M. Hinners Materials (& Process!) Engineer Warner Robins - Air Logistics Center/Avionics Production Division Manufacturing Branch (LYPME) 380 Second Street, Suite 104 (Building 640) Robins AFB, GA 31098-1638 912-926-1970 (Voice) 468 - 1970 (DSN) 912-926-7164 (Fax) mailto:[log in to unmask] . > -----Original Message----- > From: Dan Fazioli [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 02:11 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [TN] PWB CLEANING SOLVENTS > > Greetings, TechNetters! > > I have a question for the "guru's" of PWB cleaning, and obviously it > relates to > the new legislation (Montreal Protocol) which now bans the use of Ozone > depleting substances containing CFC based materials. So, with that in > mind...."What are the best "cleaning solutions" (chemicals) to use which > are > most effective for removing the flux residuals from PWB's that also has > compatibility with a wide variety of different chemicals and materials > such as > adhesives, connectors, sleeving, wire, inks, epoxies and etc.?" In > essence, > we all know that establishing a suitable substitute is no small task, and > involves many trade-offs as well. However, I would appreciate anyone > sharing > their experience with regard to this endeavor. > > Best regards, > > Faz > ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ##############################################################