Inline wash foam

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We just stepped into the inline wash world with a techical d... - Jun 28, 2012 by austin@bbm

Here's a pretty good thread from the fine SMTnet Archives on... - Jun 28, 2012 by davef

We used to have a Nuclean 324 that was running closed loop w... - Jul 02, 2012 by hoss67

austin@bbm

#66689

Inline wash foam | 28 June, 2012

We just stepped into the inline wash world with a techical devices new clean galaxy plus. We are noticing a significant amount of foaming when washing our boards after selective solder. One theory is that the water soluble flux used is not being cured, or we are just using way times too much flux.

Is foaming a common issue?

Has anyone had luck with the defoamers out there?

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George

#66696

Inline wash foam | 28 June, 2012

We had a similar problem with foam in our inline cleaner (TD). The problem were the solder paste flux residues. Boards went straight from SMT to Wave process and then washed. Anyway we changed the solder paste and problem solved. Are you using saponifier? or just DI water?

My $0.02, George

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davef

#66699

Inline wash foam | 28 June, 2012

Here's a pretty good thread from the fine SMTnet Archives on water wash foaming http://www.smtnet.com/Forums/Index.cfm?CFApp=1&Message_ID=50623

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hoss67

#66730

Inline wash foam | 2 July, 2012

We used to have a Nuclean 324 that was running closed loop with a DI water recirc system. We also had problems with foaming that was solved with a relatively simple fix. We bypassed the final rinse solenoid so that it was always running. This allowed recovery time when the pumps weren't running to get the excess flux solids out of the tanks and processed through the DI media beds. Problem was solved and we didn't have to change our flux or solder paste materials. This is only an option in a closed loop system, FYI.

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