Solder mask solvent?

Is there any suitable method of dissolving the green solder mask found on most PC boards?

A cc: would be appreciated: npreston at swbell dot net

Thank you....

Reply to
Neil Preston
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"Neil Preston" schreef in bericht news:JyBxb.3095$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr24.news.prodigy.com...

Acetone will do.

petrus

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Reply to
petrus bitbyter

Hi Neil, To my knowledge, there is nothing chemical that will remove soldermask and leave the board usable....I am assuming it is epoxy based??? If you have a number of expensive circuit boards that need it removed, your only recourse would be to find a circuit board company with a laser drill. They would be able to remove it cleanly. Hope that helps....Ross

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Ross Mac

"Ross Mac" schreef in bericht news:Ehbyb.129568$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

on

your

Ross,

Think we're talking about different things. Never get a board in my hands having a green soldermask that did not solve with acetone. Never saw the acetone affecting the epoxy either. Some component plastics or printing may be affected however.

petrus

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Reply to
petrus bitbyter

and

drill.

may

This comes from my 30 years around the PCB biz.....Ross

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Ross Mac

"Ross Mac" schreef in bericht news:zbByb.366452$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

found

hands

Well Ross,

You should have had more PCBs in your hands then I had. I remember too well the times I tried to clean PCBs with acetone and got the green laquer along with the dirt I want to remove. So I did not use acetone but ethanol (or WS11) ever since. Nevertheless, the next piece of PCB I got in my hands - some minutes ago - did *not* let its solder mask solve in acetone. So I think you are right and my response was based on the wrong experience. (Old experience although

Reply to
petrus bitbyter

soldermask

removed,

the

printing

well

along

(Old

Hi Petrus.... I have never used acetone to remove what they call soldermask on PCB's and it might remove it somewhat. In my experience in that biz was if we accidentally got it on the wrong area it could not be removed adequately to make the customer happy. When the laser drills showed up, someone came up with the idea to ablate soldermask. You just set the machine up to burn down to the foil. The C02 laser typically won't burn through copper so it's the perfect tool. They use these machines for drilling blind holes .004 and smaller at extremely high speeds. First they use a yag laser to drill through the copper, then they follow up with a C02 laser to cook the glass down to the next layer of copper. Then they fill the impression with electroless copper for a connection... In any event, this message got way off topic!!!....take care, Ross

Reply to
Ross Mac

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I use acetone all the time to remove flux residue after soldering. Won't touch the soldermask they use nowadays.

I do repair of pro audio equipment and often have to repair burnt or broken foil traces. So far the only thing I've been able to do is scrape it off or otherwise abrade it off. But I'd prefer not to abrade the copper. And sometimes the foils are difficult to get access to.

Keep looking!

Neil

on

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Neil Preston

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