Publication date: 29 May 2008
We are definitely seeing an increase in demand due to the effect of lead-free in assembly manufacturing. Fortunately, Kyzen has been studying the effects of lead-free on cleaning for more than six years so we have been successfully dealing with this non-trivial challenge.
Most soldering and fluxing technologies developed today use no-clean technology. No-clean may or may not have to be cleaned with chemistry. Cleaning no-clean with chemistry could be due to reliability concerns, but it could also be a cosmetic issue.
Water soluble materials have to be cleaned 100 percent because any remaining residues can become corrosive and damage the assembly, produce yield losses that can add significant cost to assemblies, and failing reliability requirements can cause significant profit losses as well as image deterioration of a company.
There are several factors that make chemistry necessary for cleaning water soluble lead-free materials: higher reflow temperatures (bake-on residues), more aggressive fluxes, lower standoffs, tighter pitch and higher component density.
All these factors require a much lower surface tension than the 72 dynes/cm that water has, thus making chemistry (at low concentrations) needed in many occasions.
In Kyzen’s industry leading technical laboratories, we have conducted numerous tests with many thousands of test cards, to continually develop new products that meet the challenges that the constantly evolving lead-free technology brings to the cleaning processes. This work requires close cooperation with all suppliers of lead-free products as well as with our customers.
In addition to Kyzen’s industry leading technical laboratories, we have the most comprehensive analytical laboratory in the industry. We also have a highly experienced staff, averaging 12+ years of experience in the industry. All this combines to give us the ability to face and resolve any cleaning challenge brought to us by existing or potential customers.
Kyzen supports our customers throughout the world. We are headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee and have offices located in Manchester, New Hampshire and Asia, as well as an extended network of highly qualified distributors and sales partners throughout Europe (including warehousing), North Africa, Middle East and Asia. These international offices and network enable Kyzen to respond timely and efficiently to customer needs anywhere in the world.
