Ultrasonic action can damage bondwired in OPEN PACKAGES, meaning metal cans etc. The gold wires are quickly work hardened by the movement and become brittle. That is not an issue with plastic encapsulated components, because the bondwires need to be able to vibrate freely. mark mark Mark Woolley -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Guy Ramsey Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 8:20 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] ULtrasonic Cleaning of PCBAs The company I worked for during the 1990's used Crest Ultrasonic cleaning equipment. The electronic manufacturing process methods were originally designed by experts from Rockwell International in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The products carried a 10 year warranty. I was their Quality Manager. I tracked electronic failure data through collected over 30 years. There were only two instance of failures induced by Ultrasonic cleaning, both related to a failure of the amplifiers which caused the transducers to output too much energy. This damaged reed switches and reed relays. These were not latent failures. Guy -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gregg Owens Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 2:28 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] ULtrasonic Cleaning of PCBAs Dear Technetters: I have been posed a question that I don't have much experience with other than general knowledge. It there an ultrasonic cleaner system/setting available that can clean printed circuit assemblies (yes will electronic components)? With some pending designs there is a concern that our board houses will be able to sufficiently clean (deflux) under bottom only components/BGA style components. I know from the standards that ultrasonic cleaning is typically limited to bare boards so as to not damage internal interconnections/wire bonds. But I am wondering if there is a low setting available to agitate the solution while not destroy/damage components? Your thoughts are most appreciated. Gregg Owens Technical Writer - Avionics Space Exploration Technologies Corporation 1 Rocket Road | Hawthorne | CA | 90250 [log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------