Austin American Technology Corp. has developed the worlds first combination cleaner and cleanliness tester for circuit assemblies. The Mega IonTM is a portable closed loop single board cleaner with cleanliness verification testing built-in. It is designed to provide verifiable cleaning support locally to manufacturing operations such as touch-up, add-ons, ECO’s, product development, and pre-conformal coating cleaning.
The cleaning system can use a selection of solvents ranging from water and IPA to proprietary solvent blends from Zestron and Petroferm. The solvent selection can be matched to clean the residues that need to be cleaned.
The Mega IonTM cleans flux residues with a single solvent, spray under immersion, cleaning process that can be followed with an automatic measurement of the ionic cleanliness of a circuit board. A built in dryer completes the cleaning/testing cycle.
The cleaning system is sealed and therefore uses a minimum amount of solvent (<100gals/year). This is accomplished in a closed cleaning operation were solvents are used and stored in closed stainless steel tanks. The solvent is automatically renewed with built in mixed bed ion exchange resin tank that removes anionic and cationic soils from the cleaning solvent.
The method used to assess cleanliness is based upon the IPC recognized test referred to as the “ROSE” test, The test “ROSE” method relies on dissolving the residue in a mixture of IPA and water (75%IPA, 25%water). Many fluxes are marginally soluble in this cleaning fluid.
If the residue is not dissolved then the remaining residue is not detected by the ROSE method. It is a well know fact that even RMA fluxes can leave white residue when cleaned in IPA/water solutions. The Mega IonTM overcome this problem is to use other solvent blends with improved solubility to extract the residues. Current testers are limited due to compatibility problems with the older style ion exchange resins used. The new Mega ion exchange resins work well with water and IPA and are uniquely compatible with many other organic solvents unlike water resins. New solvents blends are being developed and tested.
The system has a small foot print (30 X 36) is built in a stainless steel floor standing mobile cabinet (with lockable casters)requiring 110 volts , air/nitrogen supply, and a vent. Noise levels: less than 70 DB. The Standard voltage is 110V. The Mega IonTM is UL Compliant: UL 1950 (standard), CE and CSA Certifiable and is designed to NFPA 79 The body is constructed from stainless steel. Seal and gaskets come in Teflon, EDPM or buna-N. The cleaner is equipped with various cleaning tank sizes up to 10 gallons and also has a sealed stainless 20 gallon holding tank.
Contact: Austin American Technology Corp., P.O Box 1489, Burnet TX. 512-756-4150, Email: gseely@aat-corp.com Web www.aat-corp.com