• Modern water-based cleaning of high frequency PCBSs 
  One of the leading Electronics Manufacturing Service providers in the UK and Ireland replaced an outdated surfactant cleaning application with a modern, fully automated, water-based process solution to match the highest customer requirements for the cleaning of high frequency (HF) populated electronic assemblies.
  Published: EPP Europe 11/2011

• Cost factors of the cleaning process - part 3 
  Batch cleaning systems are often the first choice for production lines with small or medium throughputs because both their investment and operational costs are less than an inline cleaning machine.
  However, the selection of the appropriate assembly cleaning system for the expected throughput alone does not guarantee an optimal and cost-effective process. To give the users a better idea, the different cleaning processes and their cost drivers were analyzed in detailed studies at Zestron’s technical centers, and ways to optimize them were investigated. In the third and final part of this article series, the factors influencing the costs of batch cleaning processes will be considered in more detail.
  Published: Global SMT & Packaging 11/2011

• Cost factors of the cleaning process - part 2 
  For large production throughputs and low part diversity, inline systems are a time-efficient and cost-effective solution when cleaning electronic assemblies.
  Nevertheless, such fully automated electronics cleaning processes also incur costs that need to be considered. In order to understand how unexpected expenditures can arise and how savings potentials can be used, the following article will analyze the relevant cost factors for inline processes and will show options for optimization..
  Published: Global SMT & Packaging 09/2011

• Cost factors of the cleaning process — part 1 
  Companies are constantly striving to reduce costs incurred during electronics production in order to increase cost effectiveness. Generally rising costs or the need to preserve competitiveness relative to lowwage countries further reinforce this development. Being part of the value chain and production, cleaning processes for electronic assemblies are also subject of cost analyses.
  The following article, the first in a three-part series, presents a detailed summary of all cost factors relevant to the acquisition and operation of cleaning processes. A detailed analysis for optimizing individual cost factors in batch spray systems and inline processes will be conducted in two additional studies.
  Published: Global SMT & Packaging 06/2011

• Halogen-free Solder Pastes - Their Influence on SMT Assembly Cleaning 
  There is a clear trend in electronics industry towards greener, more environmetally friendly products. In particular, EU legislation as well as regulations such as RoHS and REACH have increased the focus on environmental and occupational safety concerns within the electronics manufacturing industry. Among other things, the goal is to completely abandon the use of halogen when manufacturing electronic assemblies. In addition to the use of circuit boards without brominated flame retadants and halogen containing components, it involves the application of halogen-free, no-clean solder pastes and fluxes.
  Published: EPP Europe 04/2011

• Coating - Maximum Reliability Made Affordable 
  Protective coatings are used on PCBs to prevent malfunctions in the field. However, if there are impurities on the assembly, coating alone does not sufficiently protect against failures. Cleaning increases the coating’s reliability, however it is often dismissed for cost reasons. We investigate a compromise that justifies cleaning without increasing overall production costs, and also provides environmental benefits such as lower VOC emissions.
  Published: OnBoard 04/2011

• Flexible PCB defluxing - Fulfil the requirements of highest cleanliness for the Aerospace Industry
  One of the leading contract electronics manufacturers (CEM) in the UK installed a new PCB defluxing process, which offers water- and solvent-based cleaning in just one machine to meet all cleanliness requirements of the aerospace industry.
  Published: EPP Europe 12/2010

• Environmentally Sound Cleaning
  In the past, partially halogenated hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), predominately 141b, were often used to clean electronic assemblies. With the ban on HCFCs for cleaning applications at the end of 2008, Matra Électronique, a manufacturer of high-end electronic military equipment needed to evaluate and approve a new cleaning process. The goal of the new cleaning process was compliance with regulation No. 2037/2000 issued by the European Parliament on 29 June 2000 addressing substances that deplete the ozone layer and with the regulation issued on 28 February 2002 on the use of VOCs. We take a look at the requirements for the new cleaning process as well as how the evaluation and the qualification were implemented by Matra Électronique.
  Published: OnBoard Technology 09/2010

• Can lead-free and lead-containing PCBs be cleaned in a single process?
  Study recently conducted by Zestron for better understanding the risks of cleaning lead-free and lead-containing assemblies together in a single process. By conducting cleaning trials and laboratory analysis as well as analyzing customer bath samples, the risk of a cross contamination of the lead-free assemblies with lead was examined. The study showed that using modern cleaning technologies, the limits for lead-content on lead-free assemblies set forth by RoHS and WEEE are not exceeded.
  Published: Global SMT & Packaging 11/2008

• How to select an optimum cleaning process
  When searching for the optimal cleaning process, users must ask themselves numerous questions, as there is no one-size-fits-all solution. In fact, elements such as the cleaning medium and the cleaning machine must be adapted to the specific requirements. The required surface cleanliness is, for example, much higher for assembly cleaning than for stencil cleaning, which results in more stringent requirements on the cleaning chemicals and machine. As the market offers a wide range of different cleaning systems, an independent expert with a representative selection of cleaning machines, cleaning media and analytical methods at their disposal can carry out cleaning trials for the customer to facilitate the user in making the right investment decision.
  Published: OnBoard 10/2008

• Cleaning to Optimize Your Wire Bonding Process
  The quality of wire bonding processes is oftentimes affected by contaminated surfaces. With integrating suitable qualification measures and an efficient cleaning process, reliable and reproducible results can be ensured.
  Published: EPP 07/2007

• Conformal Coating Issues – When Reliability Goes Astray
  Coatings on electronic assemblies must adhere perfectly to guarantee optimally working assemblies even under extreme conditions. For this reason, exceptionally high demands are placed on the cleanliness of the assembly surface. New, economical and fast analytical procedures to test assemblies for cleanliness are presented in this article.
  Published: Global SMT &Packaging 03/2007

• New cleaning concepts help!
  Economical Cleaning of Misprints
  By introducing an optimized cleaning process, Marquardt was able to realize the cleaning of their stencils and misprinted PCBs in a single process. Solder pastes, SMT adhesives as well as flux residues can now be removed in a single cleaning process. Due to cleaning the double-sided, populated PCBs, of which some have already been soldered on one side, they can be reintroduced into the production process. The company has thereby reduced rejects to a minimum and lowered production costs.
  Published: EPP Europe 09-10/2008

• Stencil and misprint cleaning in one process
  Siemens Electronic Design and Manufacturing Services (SEDM) is manufacturing customer-specific board assemblies and electronics systems. The company implemented a new SMT line, and in the course of this capital investment the team also took into consideration the need to incorporate a cleaning process.
  Published: EPP 11/2005

Improved printing by underside wipe cleaning
This Case Study was done by Sanmina-SCI and illustrates how the quality of the printing process was improved by installing a new stencil underside cleaning process.
Published: Global SMT & Packaging 05/2006

Fast And Cost-Effective Coating Tests
Coating tests are required during development to avoid the expensive redesign of assemblies at a later point in time. Until now test
methods have been time consuming and expensive. We take a look at a fast and cost effective test method, which puts conformal coatings to the ultimate test.
Published: Onboard 05/2005

• How clean do assemblies have to be?
  Many users are confronted with this question when assessing the cleanliness of their electronic assemblies.There is a wide range of standards, which deal with this issue and specify methods for analyzing the surface cleanliness by means of different processes.
  Published: EPP Europe 10/2007

• Case study — Solder pallet cleaning: 50% cost reduction
  By changing to a modern maintenance cleaning agent, Lenze Corporation, a specialist in drive and automation technology, was able to realize enormous cost savings and to increase process reliability. How? The following case study shows the way.
  Published: Global SMT & Packaging 01/2011