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surprisingly, these companies are the ones introducing new systems and constantly improving their products for your benefit. Ours is a global industry, and the leading suppliers can be found throughout the world. You will find them ready, willing and able to demonstrate their systems capabilities. Additionally, you will find them very familiar with the cleaning materials from the leading materials suppliers; birds of a feather flock together! During this evaluation, the machine makers will build
on the work done at the materials application lab to define and optimize the cleaning process. The keys to this are evaluating the required wash, rinse and dry time to accomplish the goal. In a batch system, each of these process steps can be optimized individually to provide the best performing process in the ideal overall cleaning process time. Conducting evaluations, particularly solid process optimization work requires substrates so please work into your planning the availability of enough parts to do good work in this area. The optimization work done up front will save countless hours and costs compared to doing it on your manufacturing floor. Remember, proper prior planning prevents poor performance! When you schedule those evaluations with the machine
makers, please keep your materials supplier informed and involved. By doing so you benefit from the wealth of experience both the equipment and materials suppliers have to offer. Now let’s look at the situation when you have a major,
high production product to clean. Here you will want a conveyorized, continuous operation “in line” cleaning system. The key difference between batch and inline is that the wash, rinse and dry “times” are based on the size of that section of the cleaning machine and the speed of the belt traveling through all the sections. Generally there is one belt for the entire system, so one speed to adjust to get just the right washing, rinsing and drying. Again, the leading suppliers in this segment have years of experience. They too will be able to will be able to build on the work done at the materials labs to design the best process for your needs. Often the in line cleaning machine design actually
begins with belt speed. Those throughput calculations are easy enough, then the challenge becomes getting the job done at that speed. In particular, this means designing the size of the wash section to provide enough cleaning time
22 EIU
at that belt speed to get the substrates clean. The wash section size is not the part of the process to shave pennies when buying a cleaning machine. These systems are quite robust, and will provide you with many, many years of service. We never know what tomorrow’s project will be so buy as much capability as you can afford. Once again, the critical process optimization work
requires substrates and time to accomplish. Work both into your plan. One last detail to consider with the in line systems; they tend to be high volume, go-go operations. I mentioned earlier about maintaining the concentration of these aqueous cleaners in the system is important. The in lines are more dynamic and require a bit more attention in this area. There are automated monitoring systems available, some have been around for years and work wonderfully others have been adopted far less often. Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). The good news is there are thousands of companies
around the world running these operations successfully every day. Cleaning helps manufacturers compete for high reliability business that often comes with a bit higher margins, a win-win situation for sure. Like any new process, proper prior planning and execution is the key to success. Measure twice and cut once is a great old time phrase, which continues to have a lesson for us today.
Tom Forsythe is a world recognized expert in cleaning chemistries and processes. Tom has a Bachelor’s in Applied Mathematics & Engineering from the US Naval Academy, a Naval Aviator designation as a Helicopter Pilot, and a Masters of Business Administration from Boston University. Over the past 20
years, Tom has authored and presented dozens of technical papers at forums around the world; all focused on cleaning technology and applications for the industrial and electronics industries. Long an active industry supporter, Tom is currently a member of the SMTA Board of Directors currently serving as Vice President for Communications, as well as a member of the PC Expo Steering Committee. Tom has spent the last 19 years with Kyzen Corporation in Nashville, TN where he is Vice President and can be reached at
tom_forsythe@kyzen.com and 1-615-831-0888
www.electronicscomponentsworld.com /
www.electronicsproductionworld.com March 15th 2012
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