No appologies necessary, it looks like wayne@att beat me to it!
Seriously, there is an article in the current November issue of Circuits Assembly magazine: "Surface-Mount Stencil Cleaning" by Nick J. Lester. From talking to Mr. Lester, I know he has interviewed several stencil cleaner manufacturers, stencil manufacturers and PCB assemblers prior to writing the article. He tells me that the only stencil cleaning spec. in the industry is the one Smart Sonic uses in their guarantee. Smart Sonic guarantees that their stencil cleaning process will "clean any type of solder paste from any fine-pitch stencil under a 10X magnification inspection of the apertures."
We work closely with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their new ETV Program (Environmental Technology Verification Program). The ETV not only verifies that a technology is environmentally safe, it also verifies that it performs up to industry standards. They also use the 10X magnification inspection of all apertures. If you need additional information, the ETV Project Manager is Mr. Pat Bennett. Pat can be reached at the EPA, Tel.: 1(916) 322-4233 or e-mailed at pbennett@cwo.com.
Nick Lester's contact information was listed at the end of the article in Circuits Assembly magazine. Unfortunately, someone borrowed my copy and I don't have his info handy.
There is also a article that was published in EP&P back in July 1996 by Richard S. Clouthier, "Improving Screen Printing Yields". This article talks about the affects of stencil cleaning on the printing process. We have this article on our Web Site: www.smartsonic.com. Click on the "Recommended Reading" button.
Now, for my appology. I am sorry if you feel my responses are "thinly cloked commercial messages." However, the questions I respond to are stencil cleaning related. I am a "commercial" stencil cleaner manufacturer. I guess that would mean anything I say regarding stencil cleaning would be commercial oriented. However, if you are a commercial PCB assembler and felt that the way you assembled PCBs was a very good methodology. And, If you responded to somebody's problem with information from your methodology, would that make your response a "thinly cloked commercial." I think you will find that some "stencil cleaner manufacturers" are experts at stencil cleaning, the same as some "PCB assemblers" are expert at PCB assembly. Treet the information from the different sources as an asset. You can always disgard it after it is received. But, if it is never received, it is of no value at all. Best regards, bs@ss
| | | First, appologies to y'll for creating an opening for bs@ss to post the usual thinly cloked commercial message. | | | | | | Second, how do you test, measure, determine if your stencil is clean? | | | | | | Thanks | | | | | | Dave F | | | | | | Here I go stepping into it! check out AAT | | | | | | Wayne | | | | | Wayne: Your link doesn't work. I know that AA makes stencil cleaners, along with Smart Sonic, Electrovert, Aqueous Technologies, and a host of others. I'm try to figure-out how to determine if a stencil is clean. Dave F |
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First, appologies to y'll for creating an opening for bs@s...
- Nov 11, 1998
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