Steve, I echo Dave's and Joyce's concerns about materials even with an "electronics" cleaning system. I had gaskets, fittings, pieces of poorly manufactured stainless steel plumbing, PVC exhaust ducts, tooling, etc. dissolve when using various aqueous and semi-aqueous cleaning solutions and DI water. This was on a process I implemented with a batch "electronics cleaning system" which was a "dishwasher" type process (The names have been changed to protect the innocent and not to embarrass the guilty). If you're going to install a batch cleaning system, recommend that you get the equipment manufacturer and the aqueous / semi-aqueous cleaning solution manufacturer together to assure that they are compatible with each other. Hope this helps. Good Luck. Lee Whiteman Senior Manufacturing Engineer E-Mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> Ph: (610) 362-1200 x208 Fax: (610) 362-1290 > -----Original Message----- > From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Steve Gregory > Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 9:08 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [TN] Water soluble batch washers... > > > Hi all, > > This is a little bit off-the-wall, and maybe sounds a bit cheap, but I'm > going to ask anyway... > > We have a inline water soluble cleaner (an Electrovert H-500) > that is located > at one end of the plant. Problem is, that at the other end of the > plant there > is hand soldering (rework and touch-up) being done. As probably > many of you > have learned, operators don't want to make the trip all the way > down to the > other end of the plant to get their boards cleaned until they > have a rack of > boards that will make the trip worthwhile... which is > understandable from a > purely logistics point of view. But that sometimes results in the flux > residues being left on the boards longer than what is desired. > > So the idea was brought up to get a couple of small batch > cleaners closer to > the area so that it would be so much of a trek to get the boards > cleaned in a > timely manner. > > Sounds like a good idea. My question is, most of the batch > cleaners I've seen > are glorified dishwashers. When you price these units you find > that they are > much, much more expensive than a dishwasher, but the operating systems are > basically the same. I did a search for commercial dishwashers and can find > nice beefy stainless constructed ones that have heated wash and > rinse cycles, > decent powered pumps, that are a third of the price that some of > "specifically designed for printed circuit cleaning" washers cost. > > The wash nozzles are basically the same, rotating wands. Rack > systems are the > same, roll-in, roll-out racks that look very similar to what I've seen in > every dishwasher I've ever had in my home. > > So my question is, has anybody ever had a real dishwasher in use to clean > water soluble residues? We will supply DI water to them straight from the > resin beds, and will be able to set appropiate cycle times to > ensure thorough > cleaning. > > >From my take on things, this should work pretty good without > having to spend > a bunch of money on a machine that can be had for much cheaper and not > actually called "A printed circuit assembly batch aqueous cleaner"... > > Any comments? > > -Steve Gregory- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > --------------- > Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d > 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/html/forum.htm for additional > information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or > 847-509-9700 ext.5315 > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > --------------- > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d 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/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------