Manassas, Va. – The latest edition of ZESTRON America’s ZESTRON News takes a closer look at why a leading Tier 1 contract manufacturer approved VIGON A 201 for their inline cleaning processes. This issue also presents a customer report addressing the true cost of cleaning with surfactants.

Ever increasing board complexity accompanied with stringent RoHS regulations and lead-free paste formulations prompted a leading Tier 1 contract manufacturer to qualify an alternative cleaning process that could meet their long term cleaning requirements. Upon meeting all the cleanliness requirements set forth by the contract manufacturer, ZESTRON’s experienced process engineering team assisted with the process ramp-up on-site. VIGON A 201 has not only reduced chemical consumption but also succeeded in improving overall economics by eliminating frequent bath changes, reducing superfluous waste water generation and providing the capability to run in closed loop system.

Keeping the overall cost low is the key for contract manufacturers to increase profit margins. A leading CM conducted a PCB defluxing evaluation by calculating the process cost based on initial investments without considering the total operating costs over a certain period of time. Based on this up-front cost decision, the engineer in charge observed after few weeks a number of cleaning issues ranging from inconstant results to frequent cleaning bath changes. The initial decision of qualifying a traditional surfactant turned out to be twice as expensive as implementing a FAST Technology product.

Also, find out why leading automotive manufacturer agreed to include ZESTRON’s clean-up services into their annual preventive maintenance scheduled.