Joe,

Just what exactly does the term "softened" mean?

There are no specs to determine the amounts and the contents of
materials placed in the "softened" water.
When you run the board through the second pass (reflow/wave) you will be
above the Tg of most of the polymers used by
vendors. This can result in unknown amounts and types of foreign
materials becoming imbedded in these polymers.

The amount and type of surface residues will also be a major concern.
These can also become hardened/baked on!
Many people have had disastrous results trying to clean boards with
"softened"/tap water.
(Check with any testing lab for these "war" stories)

David A. Douthit
Manager
LoCan LLC

"Macko, Joe @ IEC" wrote:

>
>
> Fellow Techies,
>
> Hopefully, someone can shed some light on my concern about rinsing
> boards (soldered with water soluble flux) with softened water vs. DI
> water.
>
> A board assembly house suggested that it is acceptable to do
> in-process rinsing using "softened" water (in an in-line cleaner) and
> save the "DI water" rinse for the FINAL in-line cleaning.  In-process
> cleaning would be for example after the 1st side is soldered on a
> double sided board.  Seems like a lot of extra work to me switching
> from softened to DI water.
>
> Look forward to your comments.
>
> thanks
> joe
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV
> 1.8e
> 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 1.8e
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
-----------------------------------------------------