Printed Circuit Board Assembly & PCB Design SMT Electronics Assembly Manufacturing Forum

Printed Circuit Board Assembly & PCB Design Forum

SMT electronics assembly manufacturing forum.


Windex

Fred

#1975

Windex | 10 February, 2000

I noticed a supplier using Windex to clean OA flux (from core solder) from a SMT assembly. A toothbrush was used. Other than the fact that this was manually cleaned, should I be concerned about the Windex?

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#1976

Re: Windex | 10 February, 2000

Fred: I'm tryin' my darndest to be good, because, for whatever stupid reason, I feel that you're making an honest inquiry and not just floating something to find the biggest sucker. If only Earl was still here, he'd always bite on stuff like this.

Anyway, your level of concern should increase according on the level of quality and performance that your customer expects from your products. For instance: � If you make fairly low quality throw-away products, no, don't seat it. � If you make air borne avionics, YES!!! Be concerned. � If you are trying to ratchet-up the performance level of your products, YES!!! Be concerned. Windex is very expensive soapy water with surficants (to keep it from water spotting) and who knows what else. I make industrial products. So, I�d be concerned about understanding how: 1 I got hooked-up with a maroon that is making so much money off me that he can afford to clean my boards with Windex and a tooth brush. 2 Guy cleaning boards knows how much Windex soap is required to clean the flux and other residues from my board. 3 Guy with the tooth brush and Windex cleans flux residues from under low stand-off height components my board. 4 Guy cleans solder balls from under components. 5 Guy with the garden hose rinsing my boards knows when the Windex soap is rinsed from my board. 6 Guy using city water to rinse the Windex soap residues knows that there are no longer any calcium and magnesium salts from the city water left on my board. I wonder how cryptosporidium affects board cleanliness. 7 Guy washing boards selected the kind of tooth brush he was using. I mean is this a "plaque fighter" tooth brush er what? 8 Guy washing boards keeps from getting "dish pan hands," washing boards all day long. What kind of skin softener does he use and how does he keep that off your boards? 9 Finally, thank gawd, (actually I�m not done, but am bored, and we can all see where it�s going anyhow) if these people let me see something a dumb as the Windex/tooth bush thing, what are they doing that they think is really dumb that they wouldn�t want me to see?

My2�

Dave F

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Reflow Oven

Void Free Reflow Soldering