Influencing Factors on Cleaning Ability in the Formulated Hydrocarbon-based Cleaning Agents

The objective of this study is to develop hydrocarbon-based cleaning agents by blending paraffins, glycol ethers and siloxanes in oder to effectively clean contaminants such as flux, solder and grease. And the effect of cleaning ability by wetting index, aniline points and solubility parameter of the formulated hydrocarbon-based cleaning agents were studied in this work. The formulated hydrocarbon-based cleaning agents were prepared on the base of physical properties of their individual components. Wetting indexes and aniline points of their were measured through experiments and solubility parameters of their were calculated based on the Hansen's equation. In this study, evaluation of cleaning ability by cleaning agents were carried out using contaminants such as flux, solder, and grease. The experimental results showed that the cleaning ability of the formulated cleaning agents was excellent in cleaning contaminants such as flux, solder and grease and that the influencing parameters on their cleaning efficiency were found to be different according to contaminant types. MC(), DF-1 () and DF-2() with similar solubility parameter as flux () showed 100% cleaning efficiency within 3 minutes in flux cleaning. And CFC-113, MC and 1,1,1-TCE with low aniline point less than showed excellent cleaning efficiency in solder cleaning. DG-1() and DG-2() with similar solubility parameter as grease() showed relatively low cleaning efficiency of grease, but CFC-113 and MC with high wetting index and low aniline point showed good cleaning efficiency in grease cleaning. As a result of this study, the hydrocarbon-based cleaning agents alternative to regulated cleaning agents such as CFC-113, 1,1,1-TCE and MC were able to be developed through properly blending paraffins, glycol ethers and siloxanes for cleaning flux, solder and grease. And it can be shown that various influencing parameters of cleaning efficiency such as wetting index, aniline point, solubility parameter and etc. of the non-aqueous cleaning agent should be reviewed for prediction of their cleaning ability and can be applied to formulation of cleaning agents.