Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/441404
32 SMT Magazine • January 2015 abstract In the past 20 years, the solvent industry has gone through a great deal of change. In the early 1990s, CFC-113 and 1,1,1-trichloroethane were the workhorses of the industry. The Montreal Protocol to phase out substances that deplete the Earth's protective ozone layer was imple- mented in the mid-1990s. After the phase-out of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) solvents, the solvent industry fragmented into a variety of cleaning solutions. The electronics industry was a large user of CFC solvents, and many of these ap- plications changed to aqueous-based cleaners. Some segments moved to chlorinated and bro- minated solvents such as trichloroethylene and n-propyl bromide. Other industries changed to no-clean fluxes. But those alternatives are now facing various problems: for example, aqueous- based cleaners use a lot of energy, require long drying times, use equipment that requires fre- quent maintenance, and require a large foot- print. No-clean fluxes leave flux residues, and trichloroethylene and n-propyl bromide have by rajat Basu and ryan Hulse HonEyWEll InTERnaTIonal toxicity issues. In response to these serious is- sues, newer solvents and blends are being intro- duced in the marketplace. In this pursuit, the company developed a new low global-warming potential fluorinated solvent for precision cleaning. This solvent has a mosaic of properties that make it a good solu- tion in the solvent domain. It is non-flammable, has low toxicity, environmentally friendly, and offers low surface tension, rapid drying, excel- lent solvency and a number of other favorable properties. In this article, we will review the properties and performance of the new solvent. Introduction The hunt for a new solvent to replace CFCs started in 1974, when UC Irvine Professor Sher- ry Rowland, and Mario Molina, a post-doctoral student in her lab, published [1] their work on the depletion of the Earth's protective strato- spheric ozone depletion by CFCs and various halogenated compounds. Their findings were later confirmed by scientists around the world, especially the British Antarctic Survey in 1986. The British Antarctic Survey team discovered an ozone hole in the stratosphere over Antarctica, An Alternative Solvent with Low Global Warming Potential artiCle