Pending the Grand Wazoo's: IPA is OK for un reflowed rosin/resin flux paste (just). Proprietary solutions are better. Water is only OK for water sol pastes. A little additive helps. In either case the issues are - Drying. Making sure stencils are dry before use or you will mix the cleaner into the paste. - Liquid impingement (spraying / US /etc). Ensuring the solder particles are dislodged especially from the PCB. Its amazing how many nooks and crannies there are to hide in on a PCB when you are only 25um big. - Filtration. You don't wash the solder particles down the drain or fire them onto the work. Regards Mike Fenner Indium Corporation T: + 44 1908 580 400 M: + 44 7810 526 317 F: + 44 1908 580 411 E: [log in to unmask] W: www.indium.com Pb-free: www.Pb-Free.com -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Phil Nutting Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 4:18 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Cleaning populated boards with Isopropyl I'm interested in what the "Grand Wazoo" Doug Pauls and Brian Ellis have to say about this. If I've read their musings correctly alcohol does a nice job of spreading the ionic schmootz where DI water cleans it very well. If my research is correct, there are several automated DI water stencil cleaning systems readily available on the market (www.aqueoustech.com www.aat-corp.com to name just two) and these suppliers also make batch style board cleaners. Austin American (aat-corp) has a new unit on the market for under $10k. Oops, was that too close to a sales pitch? Why would you want to "eliminate DI water"? Phil -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Black, Paul Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 10:58 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Cleaning populated boards with Isopropyl Hi Everyone, I currently clean SMT stencils in a sink with hot deionized water. I would like to automate this process (and eliminate the DI water) and have been looking at cleaners that can do the job. One of them uses Isopropyl Alcohol with no rinsing. This should work fine for the stencils but occasionally I also have to clean misprinted boards that may already be populated on one side, using no-clean solder paste. If I were to use this Isopropyl process on the misprints, would I be risking reliability of the board? Any help would be appreciated. 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