Water based cleaners

Water-based cleaners are also in use to replace ozone depleting chemicals as well as offering a solution to reduce solvent emissions. This cleaning process has several advantages over solvent based cleaners, including non-flammable properties, low odour, low/non-VOC and very low toxicity.

Water-based cleaners tend to be much more complex than their solvent based counterparts. They utilise surfactant technology to assist the removal of contaminants from a PCB by reducing the interfacial tensions and suspending or emulsifying them in solution. Alternatively, water-based flux removers work by saponification, neutralising the flux acids.

The only major disadvantage of water-based cleaners is that they require multiple stages to complete the cleaning process, including a two-stage rinse process and a final drying stage. Finally, there is also a newer type of surfactant-free water based cleaner. Based on glycols, these cleaners combine the advantages of water based and solvent based cleaners with only minimal rinsing required.