Jim, Sorry to say, I think your boards are toast. Flux does wick up under insulation and no cleaning process that I have ever seen totally removes it. Given a very active flux, you probably already have corrosion in the wires. Now, if you can replace the discrete wires, you might still be able to salvage the board. I would remove all the wires and have ion chromatography done on the assembly itself. That should give you an idea of how effective your overall cleaning process was. Doug Pauls Rockwell Collins Jim West <[log in to unmask]> Sent by: TechNet <[log in to unmask]> 03/09/2009 06:44 PM Please respond to TechNet E-Mail Forum <[log in to unmask]>; Please respond to Jim West <[log in to unmask]> To [log in to unmask] cc Subject [TN] Wrong flux used During selective soldering, our operator used an IA flux (superior flux 75), which we normally use to dress up the soldering nozzle to create a smooth flow of solder. The flux was applied by a spray fluxer. The operator used the wrong bottle when reloading the spray fluxer. We ran the boards through a wash system hoping to remove the IA flux. The soldering operation involves discrete wires and I would think that the flux would wick up under the wire insulation and not be reachable for cleaning. My questions are: If the flux has wicked up under the wire insulator and can not be reached by cleaning, will this type of flux cause issues with the copper wire? Will cleaning the boards be enough to say that no harm will be done, or will this flux cause latent issues due to it's aggressiveness? (other components were touched by this flux, i.e. SMT ceramic capacitors, resistors) Flux information Superior soft soldering flux: "The inorganic acid (IA) zinc chloride fluxes, commonly referred to as "acid fluxes," are used for industrial soft soldering applications with tin/lead, tin/silver, and other solder combinations. These fluxes typically contain a combination of zinc chloride, hydrochloric acid, and ammonium chloride and are used for soldering stainless steels, brass, copper, and other metals." Thanks, Jim --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 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/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 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/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------