Some 74 per cent of all defects in the PCB manufacturing process are related to solder paste problems according to the SMTA. Blocked stencils can be caused by a number of things including laser marking ablation dust, smaller apertures in the stencil and even hair and clothing fibres from operators. So what is the solution? Teknek believes the answer is to ensure the bare boards are thoroughly cleaned before printing using the latest contact cleaning technology.
Ruaridh Nicolson, the sales and marketing manager said: “The SMT industry has invested substantial amounts of money in sophisticated equipment such as 3D SPI machines. However, this only highlights the fact that you have a problem such as too little solder paste on a pad and you have to scrap the board — it does not offer a solution!” He added: “Precision cleaning of the board before printing makes it quite easy to analyse what effect the cleaning process has had on yields. Our contact cleaners consistently improve yields by 3 to 6%. A simple in-line cleaner with the core technology of the company will remove the random solder paste defects caused by board contamination. Our customers import fine pitch boards, unpack them, laser mark them and then pass them through the contact cleaner. The SPI equipment shows the customer that they are getting closer to achieving their goal of zero defects as well as dramatically reducing the amount of rework required.”
The latest addition to Teknek’s family of SMT “Clean Machines” – the BC 460 – was launched at the SMT show in Nuremberg this year. The BC 460 is a single sided board cleaner capable of cleaning boards up to 460mm wide and integrates seamlessly into the production line. The unit also incorporates an anti-static system to reduce the risk of recontamination and is easy to operate via an icon based operator interface. In addition, the use of independent motors to drive each roller has reduced the number of moving parts, which will increase long-term reliability.
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