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 A manufacturer of PCBs fundamental to military comms devices has achieved dramatic reductions in solvent costs and process time following the installation of a cosolvent cleaning system from Kerry Ultrasonics.
The two-stage Microsolve 525 is being used by BAe Land Platform Communications to remove no-clean flux residue.
The Kerry plant has reduced annual solvent consumption from 2250 to 450 litres, saving the company GBP 7000 a year.
Similarly, cycle time is down from 25 to 10min, effectively increasing throughput capacity by 60%.
The Kerry machine has also allowed BAe to remove the ozone-depleting solvent 141B from its cleaning process.
BAe produces a mixture of flexible and rigid boards, featuring both single- and double-sided circuits.
The company's current production quality standard prevents ultrasonics from being used on 80% of its boards, yet defence standards of cleanliness must still be achieved.
After rejecting aqueous cleaning options due to their extended process times, Steve Parker, Electronics Process Engineer at BAe, turned to Kerry.
"We chose to work with Kerry to solve this problem", he explains, "because of its recognised expertise in the field of solvent cleaning".
Kerry's Microsolve unit operates with or without ultrasonics and uses a mixture of the hydrocarbon Topklean EL20A and 3M's Novec HFE71IPA in the immersion cleaning stage.
Where use of ultrasonics is forbidden, these agents are pumped around the tank at a rolling boil, thereby creating sufficient agitation within the fluid to remove contaminants.
Boards then undergo two separate rinses, the first an immersion in HFE, the second a vapour rinse.
Finally, components dwell in the freeboard area of the cleaning system until dry.
Editor's note: If you would like Guyson International to send you a free brochure or catalogue on the products in this news article, please click here.
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