Ask Helena & Leo

Question: Quite often we have discussions about application of no clean solder and cleaning the flux off the board. We would like to put together a training course that talks about this. Do you have any information that you could direct us to?

Answer: I would start with supplier information, such as the flux manufacturers, AIM, Kester, Alpha, Indium etc. Get the datasheets on their different Low Solid content fluxes, as they may have more than one.

Secondly, do some research on some of the industry trade magazine websites, as they do post several articles about related topics. Here are just a few:

http://smt.iconnect007.com/
http://www.circuitsassembly.com/
http://pcdandf.com/pcdesign/
http://www.globalsmt.net/smt/index.php

Third would be the IPC specifications on fluxes, J-STD-004 and the cleaning specifications, as they would provide the requirements.

Last, but not least would be your experiences with the materials and the examples that you have had from those process efforts.