HP / Agilent figured out 3 decades ago that the use of IPA and a brush or swab to remove RMA flux residues caused more harm than good. The active components of the flux spread all over the board, reducing insulation resistance that was especially harmful for high frequency circuits. No matter what solvent you use, the manual nature of this cleaning process lowers your likelihood of a thorough cleaning job and increases your likelihood of leaving behind active or conductive material. That was back in the TH days and now with SMT parts and low or no clearance parts, it's even more important to not spread activators into places where you can't get them out. Field repair techs have no access to elaborate wash processes, and water-sensitive parts prevent these processes, too. Our specs call for not cleaning rework or hand- solder RMA flux residues as long as they are hard, not tacky and have not been disturbed. This works for the environments where Agilent equipment. is used --------------------------------------------------- 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.aspx?Pageid=E-mail-Forums for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------