The Importance Of Cleaning Chemicals In PCBs

Technological innovations and the higher production of electronic devices have led to an increased demand for cleaning chemicals in the electronics industry.

The cleaning of PCB assemblies is essential to ensure trouble-free performance and the longevity of the circuit boards. PCBs accumulate dust easily and when exposed to harmful environmental agents, the components on them can deteriorate significantly. After soldering, a considerable amount of flux residue gets left around the solder joints. This can corrode the solder joints gradually and prevent heat loss, which causes overheating. In order to achieve good insulation resistance and improve the life span of the circuits, cleaning chemicals should be used.

There is a wide variety of PCB chemicals available in the market, like wet cleaners, solder pastes, solvents, conformal coatings, anti-static protection products, stencils, the safe wash range, and low VOC (volatile organic compounds) lubricants and resins, to name a few.

The purpose of cleaning chemicals

The rapid growth in the electronics industry has occurred on the back of constant innovations. Currently, the size of the components has shrunk significantly, which in turn has increased the importance of cleaning chemicals

in electronics manufacturing. If not cleaned properly, contaminants such as flux, solder paste, adhesive residue, dust and debris that are invisible to the naked eye can lead to the breakdown of the PCBs. However, manufacturers prefer to use no-clean solder flux to avoid the cleaning process. But there is no guarantee that no-clean flux is free from residue. Theoretically, such flux, which is composed of organic adipic and citric acid, readily breaks down when in contact with heat during soldering. Though there is minimal solid content in no-clean flux, there is still some corrosive residue left on the board surface after soldering. This could adversely affect the equipment over time. To avoid these pitfalls, the cleaning process is in fact mandatory within the electronics industry.