Stencil Cleaning: An Area of Increasing Importance

Stencil cleaning has become both more difficult and more critical for modern surface mount technology. There is an increasing need for cleaning agents for stencils which are effective, safe for workers and safe for the environment. This paper describes a new laboratory test which was developed for predicting the performance of stencil cleaning formulations. A new aqueous, inorganic based cleaning agent has been developed which gives cleaning performance which was overall better than that of IPA. Testing was performed over a range of solder pastes. This performance advantage was confirmed with commercial stencil cleaning equipment. In addition to being very effective, this inorganic based stencil cleaner offers significant environmental and worker safety advantages.