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Safety equipment for servicing solder wave

#25504

Safety equipment for servicing solder wave | 19 August, 2003

Anyone have a good source for respirators, gloves, aprons etc. for working on wave solder machines? Is there some industry standard for what is required?

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CAL

#25505

Safety equipment for servicing solder wave | 20 August, 2003

ADLSMT- I do not know of any standard but do know each town, city, county, and state have different governing rules. Some require a fire suppression system and some insurances require this as well.

As far as Supplies go we get most of our stuff from McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com) They have a full compliment of Leather Aprons, Gloves, Shields, ladles, Scoops, straight edges, goggles, helmets, blankets, labels, signs,Sleeves, Bibs, chaps, you get the drift.all pretty cheap as well.

McMaster Carr online Book: Aprons,Bibs, Sleeves see page 1624 Gloves see page 1610 Helmets see page 1647 ladles Page 1561 Skimmers page 2440 Spatula page 2166 Knives/Scrapers page 2165 Caution Hot labels page 1703

Hopefully your machine has proper ventilation as to not need a respirator. Dross Buckets can be provided by your reclaimation company.

I think that about covers it.

Regards, Cal Communications Test Design, Inc. www.ctdi.com

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#25515

Safety equipment for servicing solder wave | 20 August, 2003

Thank you!

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#25519

Safety equipment for servicing solder wave | 20 August, 2003

We use a respirator when ever we handle dross.

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#25522

Safety equipment for servicing solder wave | 21 August, 2003

Dave, what type? Where do you get them?

Thanks!

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#25528

Safety equipment for servicing solder wave | 21 August, 2003

Use a cartridge that's approved [conform to OSHA 42 CFR 84] to provide respiratory protection against organic vapors, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, sulfur dioxide, chlorine dioxide, and hydrogen fluoride with a P100 particulate filter which is effective against all solid & liquid aerosols (99.97% filter efficiency level). Like: * 3M: 7253 Organic vapor/Acid Gas cartridge and the P100 particulate filter in a dual stack-up. * Aearo AO Safety: R53HE - P100 (51490-00000) Organic Vapors and Acid Gases with P100 particulate filter.

Airborne lead (dross dust): OSHA airborne lead level sampling was done during process operation. Studies have shown that the typical mean airborn lead concentration from wave soldering is 0.01 mg/cubic meter. This is indeed well below OSHA 8 hour TWA PEL. Dross and sitting dust is not normally disturbed during normal operation, but rather in service operations. This is where the main problems arise.

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#25533

Safety equipment for servicing solder wave | 21 August, 2003

Thanks for the info!

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kenBliss

#25537

Safety equipment for servicing solder wave | 21 August, 2003

In order to service your wave solder machine safely, the following needs to be understood. Ladling dross out of the machine and putting it in into a coffee can or similar is not safe and puts operators and other employees at risk.

Protecting the service person on an individual basis only protects the individual, the lead fume that is allowed to escape is still hazardous to the rest of the plant via ventilation systems and Air Conditioning, enormous liability, ask your workers comp insurance carrier on their thoughts. Unless you fully contain all of the dross and lead fume and lead dust locally at the machine you are exposing everyone to the danger. Like most chemical exposure it takes years of exposure to cause real damage but it is real and does cause damage This is proven as published in the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, Inc. � Hazard Assessment and Control Technology in Semiconductor Manufacturing II copyright 1993 ISBN: 1-882417-02-X. Although not a current document it is completely accurate still today on the danger. (If you want a copy of the article in the book send me an email with your mailing address and I will send you a hard copy, i do not have a soft copy). A quote from the summary of the article �The current knowledge about lead toxicity indicates that serious adverse health effects can occur at levels of exposure below the exposure limits of the OSHA lead Standard.�

The proper safe way to handle this process is as follows.

Using a portable dross handling system that has HEPA filtration, you bring this type of system upto the wave solder machine. The ventilation system on the wave solder machine must remain on. You open the wave solder access door and position the dross handling system next to it, turn on the HEPA vacuum system and then open the dross handling system cover. As you ladle out the dross from the wave and dump it into the dross handling system you contain all the dross and all the fumes since the ladle is always in a air breeze that is contained. As the dross hits the bottom of the dross barrel and hits cold dross already there an additional lead fume plume is released in the barrel but contained by the HEPA vacuum system. Once finished with the process you close the top of the dross handling system and turn off the vacuum.

For the handling or service on the solder pump. You need a similar system, a down draft table. This allows cleaning, servicing even melding solder off of pump components and contains all the fumes to keep operators safe.

You can find these type of systems from only two suppliers that I know of. One is Bliss Industries http://www.blissindustries.com/products/drossfume/drossfume.htm the second is Impell http://www.impell.com/.

Ken Bliss Bliss Industries, Inc. kbliss@blissindustries.com 510-490-8401

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