Tips for Selecting Suitable Stencil Cleaner For Your Operations

Stencils have proven to be an advantage for the electronics industry as they have made accuracy and material savings possible when working with solder and fluxes. That being said, when solder pastes and fluxes are applied to stencils, some of the stuff sticks to the stencil and stays there. This leads to the requirement of cleaning the stencil because solder and flux cannot be removed that easily. Stencil cleaners are now available in the market which achieves perfect and spotless cleaning of stencils like it was never used before. Here are some tips for selecting suitable stencil cleaner for your operations.

Tip #1: How are you cleaning?

The method you are going to adopt for cleaning your stencils is going to have an impact on your choice of cleaner – for example, if you are going to use an automated cleaner, or if you are going to do it manually, or how often or seldom you are going to clean, etc. The chemical composition of your cleaner will vary according to these practices.

Tip #2: What are you cleaning?

It is not just the stencil you will be cleaning – the chemical composition of the flux sticking to it will also determine what chemicals are needed in the cleaner to remove it. Also, if you are going to be using different kinds of fluxes, then choosing a cleaner compatible with most will be a good idea.

Tip #3: How finely are you cleaning?

If your stencil has fine apertures for precision application, you may want to narrow your search down to cleaners that are thin enough to flow through them for effective cleaning.

Keep the above tips in mind to get cleaners that get the job done right.