Re: Cleaning Solutions for PC Boards Advice

[LaterDude <l8rdude$REMOVE$@newsguy.com>]

On Mon, 18 Feb 2002 22:52:37 GMT Tom Zuchowski wrote:

> I repair industrial electronics for a living, and our cleaning room
> cleans all printed circuit boards with a harsh industrial detergent
> and a soft brush, followed by a thorough rinse using copious running
> water. 

I use to work in the Mainframe industry and we once had a fire in our 
computer center. At that time we were using IBM 370s and everything was 
affected by smoke damage and chemicals used by the fire department to 
combat the fire. 

IBM came out with 55 gallon containers of what was essentially denatured 
alcohol with TF freon add to speed the evaporation process. They took all 
the circuit boards and dunked them right into the barrels, then again in a 
cleaner solution to rinse. They them hung them out to dry on a makeshift 
clothes line outside our facility. Within a day they had reassembled out 
mainframes and we were up and running. It was an amazing sight, seeing all 
these large circuit boards and computer framework flapping in the breeze. I 
wish I had taken a picture.

The only thing that they had to replace was a couple of keyboards that did 
not survive the cleaning process or perhaps it was just damaged to badly by 
the fire.