The Association Connecting Electronic Industries, or IPC, has released the B revision of IPC-CH-65, Guidelines for Cleaning of Printed Boards & Assemblies. The document is designed to help the process engineering community deal with the difficulties that can lead to serious reliability problems on printed wiring boards (such as residues). Over the past several years, the migration from the use of lead-bearing materials to lead-free materials has resulted in many changes in electronics manufacturing operations. Some of the residual materials that remain on the circuit card assembly are becoming increasingly more problematic to clean. Component densities and component under-clearances are creating new cleaning challenges.
With guidance from industry experts, the cleaning guidelines have been completely rewritten and address all facets of cleaning, including material selection, process considerations, equipment selection as well as the environmental impact of cleaning. The 200-page document not only brings cleaning requirements up to date, but it also combines multiple documents into a single, comprehensive guideline. IPC-CH-65B explains the interactions between materials and processes and outlines the sources and types of contamination found on today’s circuit card assemblies.IPC members may request a free single-user download of IPC-CH-65B, Guidelines for Cleaning of Printed Boards & Assemblies, by sending an e-mail to MemberTechRequests@ipc.org within 90 days of the document’s publication date. After that date, IPC members may purchase the standard for $50. The nonmember price is $100. For more information or to purchase IPC-CH-65, visit www.ipc.org/CH-65.
