Selecting Cleaning Processes for Defluxing
This paper discusses the factors, advantages and disadvantages to consider for commonly used cleaning processes.
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Authored By:
Michael C. Savidakis, Ph.D., Jay Soma, Ph.D., Robert Sell, Christine Fouts, Ph.D.
Petroferm Inc., Gurnee, Illinois USA
Summary
Electronics manufacturing process engineers are faced with significant challenges when selecting a cleaning system as a consequence of the wide ranges of cleaning processes and equipment. Currently available cleaning systems include aqueous processes, semi-aqueous processes, monosolvent vapor degreasing and co-solvent vapor degreasing; while equipment options include inline, batch, centrifugal and ultrasonic immersion.
When matching the right process with the right equipment for a specific application, many other factors must be considered including performance, capital expense, SHE (safety, health and environmental) restrictions, throughput, available floor space, chemical compatibility and operating costs and maintenance costs. An analysis of the total cost of ownership of a cleaning process is an important step in choosing the right process.
This analysis helps identify the lifetime costs of acquiring, maintaining and operating a process. This paper discusses the factors, advantages and disadvantages that should be considered for each of the commonly used processes in the electronics cleaning industry to help determine the total cost of ownership.
Conclusions
Even though the total cost/year for high-volume operations using inline cleaning equipment are
substantially higher than low-volume operations using batch equipment, the total capital cost/board can be lower for inline systems.
However, the operating costs/board for an inline is generally higher than for batch operations. If high throughput is not required, the monosolvent batch vapor degreasing offers the lowest total cost/board amongst the processes evaluated, followed by aqueous batch cleaning If high throughput is required, both the aqueous and semi-aqueous processes offer similar total cost/board. The total cost/board for the batch co-solvent process is high due to the expensive fluorinated solvents used in the process. However, new fluorinated solvents offering similar performance are now available at lower
prices.
Initially Published in the IPC Proceedings
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