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Suggested Stencil Wipe Frequency?
Board Talk
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TranscriptPhil Welcome to Board Talk with Phil Zarrow and Jim Hall of ITM Consulting, the assembly brothers coming to you from the situation room at ITM headquarters high atop Mount Rialto. What's the question du jour? Jim How do we determine what is the best under stencil wipe frequency? Phil Wiping the underside of the stencil, we're talking about in process, and the answer is it depends. It's application driven. Some of the factors include:
Jim Get back to basics is always my tendency. Obviously we don't want to wipe the stencil any more frequently than we have to because it typically costs us money in terms of paper and solvent and consumables. If you're in a high volume high-speed line where stencil printing could become the limiting gate in the line, stencil wiping typically adds to the overall cycle so you don't want to do it any more frequently than you have to. But on the other side obviously if you don't do it enough you start to get solder defects, due to the factors my brother was alluding to. Phil One thing, interesting to note that a lot of the more modern systems can be equipped where they're utilizing a vision system to actually do an inspection of the stencil. These systems are good. Of course it depends how they're applied and what apertures you're actually checking. We still recommend the best thing is direct knowledge. Do a DOE (Design of Experiments) to actually determine for that given application, stencil, materials etc., you know what the frequency should be along with the materials and the methodology whether using a dry wipe only with vacuum or whether you're using wet followed by a dry. Jim One other factor is that if you choose to use a solvent as part of your under stencil wiping, make sure it's an appropriate solvent for the paste you're using. IPA is not a universal solvent for all solder paste and you can get into trouble by using IPA or any solvent that isn't compatible with a specific paste you're using. And that's true of all cleaning operations. Phil You've been listening to Board Talk with Phil and Jim, the assembly brothers. Whatever you do when you go to reflow, don't solder like my brother. Jim And don't solder like my brother. Photo courtesy of High Tech Conversions. |
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