Glenn,
There are both very good VOC-Free fluxes as well as alcohol based fluxes out there. This should be your primary focus if you are so lucky as to have to opportunity to actually select a flux!
The use of nitrogen will benefit any no-clean process in *varying degrees*. On the process side, you have to realize that N2 is just a band-aid to cover up a myriad process issues, ie., weak flux, oxidized boards, improper preheat profile, poorly appiled OSP coatings, etc., etc. I won't go into it but N2 also reduces dros to *varying degrees*. The variable of using N2 with either of these types of fluxes is not really important in regards to its effect on the soldering process. What I mean is...If you could hypotheticly have two *identical* fluxes, one being alcohol based and the other water based, I don't know of any reports showing that N2 will cause increased performance on one or the other type of flux, nor can I see any reason why it would. This is why I said, concentrate on finding the best performing flux for your process, whether it be VOC-free or not.
Like it has been mentioned already (get the hint?) if you do go with a water based flux, make REAL sure your machine or your process dries all of the water carrier from the PCB before going into the wave. This is best done with a convective style preheater but can be accomplished using IR heaters, albeit at a slower conveyor speed typically.
As for contacts of people using this type of setup...geez, there's countless numbers out there using VOC-Free flux and nitrogen combinations. It's definately not a new idea or something out of the ordinary.
I hope this answers your questions. Please feel more than free to contact me via email for any related issues.
Chris Kelly Product Specialist (Wave Solder) Speedline Technologies
| I require some feed back from any one who knows about using a voc free flux in a nitrogen wave solder machine soldering both through hle and smt componants. | What disadvantages are there when using this flux? | Do you have any contact details with any one using this type of application? | | Regards, | | Glenn | |
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