Part II - To Clean or not to Clean

Stencil Cleaning

The benefits of automated stencil cleaning

Our previous article was addressed to PCB cleaning prior to printing,  today we like to share some thoughts about stencil cleaning.

Many customers clean stencils manually at the end of a production run using saturated wipes with IPA or special products, such as DEK stencil clean wipes.  But cleaning results are very operator depending and time-consuming.

The process is also disliked because it often needs to be done at the end of a shift.  Some solder paste may remain in the corners of fine pitch apertures. This will dry out and cause trouble during the next production run. This is why we recommend a small investment in proper automated Stencil cleaning equipment.

MBtech’s ultrasonic stencil cleaning equipment has proven to be the fastest and most effective in cleaning fine-pitch stencils.  The patented closed-loop filtration process keeps the fluid in perfect shape resulting in minimal fluid consumption. Machines are designed to work with Zestron cleaning agents.  Zestron’s advanced chemistry is able to capture flux and solder particles without dissolving them, allowing the micron filters to capture all. 

Cleaning takes about 4 minutes only! Drying can be done in air or in the optional additional hot air drying chamber. Because the drying chamber is separated from the cleaning tank, cleaning and drying can be done simultaneously if more stencils need to be cleaned, 

Only the stencil is dried and not the complete cleaning chamber as done in traditional spray in air cleaning machines. This contributes to the lowest fluid consumption possible.  

The overall cost of cleaning per stencil in many cases is lower than for cleaning by hand, resulting in a fast return on investment.

Please allow us to make this ROI calculation together and contact us for more information.