I must say that looks like an amazing cleaning machine. We do switches and some high R through holes with rosin and then clean with cotton swabs and IPA. Mostly to make it look nice, ~10% of the rosin is still spread around on the board.
George H.
F-ing awesome! Thanks. (I think I got most of that.) How much power in the cooling coils? JL, what's the temperature down in the cooling vapor. (and can't you get the liquid for less if you use a lot?)
George H.
We've been soldering electronics for over 100 years, PC boards for about 70 years. Even planar silicon ICs are an old technology.
But cars still use pistons and valves and gears, 1800's technology. We still eat chicken soup and drink beer.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc picosecond timing precision measurement jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com http://www.highlandtechnology.com
F-ing awesome! Thanks. (I think I got most of that.) How much power in the cooling coils? JL, what's the temperature down in the cooling vapor. (and can't you get the liquid for less if you use a lot?)
George H. ===========================================================
Remember, this is basically a still so the vapor temperature should be the boiling point of the solvent. The liquid solvent should be gently simmering, or a bit less. Basically you use heater power to vaporize a certain mass flow rate of solvent, then use cooling power in the cooling coils to condense that same mass flow rate so you maintain a constant reservoir volume of hot vapor. Too low a mass flow rate and you don't exclude all of the air and so don't have maximum vapor density so don't have maximum rinsing condensation flow (yeah, I love terse and runon :-)). The other way to look at it is that you want enough vapor to be able to heat the most massive part you are going to clean all the way to the boiling point, to get maximum cleaning effect. Any more and you are just wasting heater and cooling power, any less and you are wasting time.
----- Regards, Carl Ijames
IPA tends to leave white residue when cleaning rosin flux. We use some fabulously expensive complex stuff, but we don't consume a lot of it.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc lunatic fringe electronics
India Pale Ale?
-- Rick C
Isopropyl Alcohol, not to be confused with the kinds of alcohol for consumption!
FYI, a little ammonia water blended in with alcohol (denatured or IPA) works great. Rosin is organic acids, so wash it away with a basic cleaner.
Stronger solvents are good too (e.g., MEK), but fewer components are compatible with them (possible hazards include: washing away labels, damaging electrolytic seals, etc.).
Tim
-- Seven Transistor Labs, LLC Electrical Engineering Consultation and Contract Design Website: http://seventransistorlabs.com
IPA is also horrifically flammable.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
-- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 160 North State Road #203 Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net
Good writeup. This does finally answer the question of WHY one would use this process vs just explaining something condenses and there's heat and solvent.
Except for typical solvents being super flammable, this sounds like something fun to try.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.