Book Reviews

There are established books in the industry covering cleaning varying in age but never the less all of value. This latest text book has been passed to this reviewer for review not as an alternative to existing text but as a further source of information to engineers. When you consider that in the electronics industry over 80% of companies have eliminated cleaning from their electronic assembly operations why are we still considering it ?

The book's chapters cover the process of cleaning rather than being industry specific, which does open up the text to a wider audience. The book covers aqueous cleaning, chemistry, selecting detergents and machines, applications, waste treatment and health and safety. The text explains why the industry went away from solvents and the change to aqueous and semi-aqueous. Although this reviewer is from the no clean camp aqueous is the best alternative choice for electronics and not the semi-aqueous process in some sectors; by all means try out different techniques, which is what the text helps you to undertake.

There is a nice section on cleanliness assessment using some of the techniques this reviewer has used over the years. This section's one major omission is ionic contamination which is the technique most often used in electronics. It should have been covered as should SIR testing. The water break test is the simplest and least used test method in our industry apart from printed board fabrication where it can be very useful.

The text is an interesting read but of limited value to the electronics process engineer when compared to other more established sources of information. Its a more general text and not best suited to our industry. You do however get the opportunity to get a copy of the book if you are evaluating materials from Alconox and you agree to provide a report on your test results. Nice sales ploy.

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