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Dross Contamination After Selective Soldering
Board Talk
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Authored By:Contribution from Bob Klenke Business Development Manager ACE Component Services www.acecomponentservices.com TranscriptPhil And welcome to Board Talk with Jim Hall and Phil Zarrow of ITM Consulting, the Assembly Brothers. Today we are coming to you from the through-hole technology lab at ITM's headquarters, high atop Mount Rialto. We are here to talk about electronic assembly, materials, equipment, components, practices and procedures, among other things. Jim, today our question is ... Jim It is about selective soldering, Phil. Perhaps we should search out some superior knowledge and wisdom. Phil Oh my, look who just walked in. It's Bob Klenke, world-renowned guru of selective and wave soldering and all things like that. Hey Bob, how are you doing? Bob Well, I'm doing fine. How are you guys? Jim Great timing Bob. So good to see you. Phil Today's question is indeed about selective soldering. It is from M.K. We have discovered an extremely fine low density dross on PCBs after selective soldering. The dross is difficult to see without careful examination. Is there an effective way to clean or remove this? Out batch washing machine is unable to remove it. We are using SN 100 C alloy and a no-clean flux applied with drop jet. The dross dust appears in the vicinity of solder joints, but not immediately adjacent to them. It seems that the dross may be carried to the board via the nitrogen blanket surrounding the nozzle. We de-dross the pot once at the beginning of each eight hour shift and de-dross the pump assembly once per week. What do you guys think? What do think on this one Bob? Bob Well, from what they are describing if it can't be cleaned off, I am tending to think that the residue they are talking about could perhaps be organic, rather than metallic. Dross is made up of tin-oxide, which can typically be removed, but excessive flux especially if it has been over-heated is organic in nature and that is perhaps why it can't be cleaned off in their washing machine. It is not uncommon in the field we see people tending to put an excessive amount of flux in selective. You don't need much flux at all. People tend to over-flux. It is sort of one of the ten deadly sins of selective. The other thing is the writer was saying that they are using a no-clean, which I like to call a less-clean because these is always some residue. The other thing is it could be excessive flux in combination with bottom-side pre-heating and not bottom and top heating. You really want to heat your flux so that you can drive the carrier vehicle, activate the solids. You want to measure top-side board to make sure to activate your flux. You should also monitor the bottom-side board temperature for flux survivability. Jim Bob, do you mean you have to profile your board for selective soldering? Bob Well, funny you should ask Jim. When I teach select workshops I always ask a show of hands of how many people profile their reflow oven. Every hand in the room goes up. I ask how many people profile their wave machine. Maybe about half the hands go up. When I ask how many people profile their selective I'm lucky if I get one or two. I don't understand because soldering is about time and temperature. What this gentlemen is describing sounds like it could be an excessive amount of no-clean flux that is staying on the board. It could be over-heated on the bottom-side and therefore it is leaving organic material. I have seen it where people are doing crazy things in their selective solder pot that they shouldn't be, like doing manual tinning as well as soldering. They will see a black dust that they think is dross but it is burnt flux. That's what I tend to think it is. Jim Yeah, when you say I can't clean it I always think of over-heating flux. That is one of the things that will inhibit cleaning. Bob Right, because of excessive amount I can't emphasize enough that whenever I am out in the field addressing a selective soldering process issue invariably people are putting more flux on than they really need to. They are not heating it properly or monitoring the heat properly. Whether you have latent heating or infrared heating or convection or convection IR, you need to profile the board. You don't have to do it every single time but a first article in process development is certainly in order. That is what I am thinking here. Jim You're the expert Bob, so I put a lot of credence in it. I hope our listeners will also. Phil I do too. The excessive flux thing, we see it in through-hole soldering only because you can't really do an excessive flux thing in reflow soldering. The old adage if you add enough flux you can solder anything, more flux will make it right. Doesn't surprise me, missing the point. Hey Bob, thanks for tripping by. Bob You're welcome. Phil You have been listening to Board Talk with Phil and Jim and your other brother, Bob. Remember, if you can't laugh at yourself, we certainly will. And whatever you do, don't solder like my brothers. Jim Don't solder like my brothers. Bob Same thing. |
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