During my under-graduate and graduate school careers, I worked at Honeywell's circuit board fabrication shop for about a year and a half. We had two machines in the shop that dealt with flux: a reflow machine and a parts set machine. The reflow machine was used to reflow the solder after plating so that it looked shiny. The board was emersed in a 601-type flux, heated to about 425F, cooled down, and then scrubbed (brushed) with Isopropanol alcohol three times (stages) with a water rinse and force-air dried (all automagically). The solder was beautiful and shiny at the end of this process. The parts-setting machine was similar... the whole (pre-reflowed) board was fluxed, the parts set, heated, and then cleaned. All fluxes come off with Isopropanol alcohol (remember IPA is polar like water and works that way).
Fluxes come in various forms... some are more corrosive and some not... so you should follow the directions (right off the website). Rosin can remain on a board, but also can be problematic because it can collect debris (dust and other unwanted materials) because its plastic (flows at room temperature) sticky. Many of the water-soluble fluxes are more acidic, and will tarnish the solder joints if not removed. On the subject of using water on electrical components... most components (particularly if they might be mil spec) are made for water emersion (NOT ALL!). In my office lab we routinely clean circuit boards by scrubbing them with just water and force-drying them. Works fine. About a decade ago, I used to buy up surplus AM/ broadcast band transmitters for repurposing to other countries (mainly south America) for the Christian broadcasting markets. Once back at my shop, the first stop was a good through power washing in the driveway (paper and other water damaged goods removed of course) followed by a good drying (leaf blower). Works fine! Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ VP2EHZ -- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
