Resource Library

How the IPA Shortage Affects Fiber Cleaning Practices

IPA was never the recommended cleaning agent for fiber end faces anyway. Now that there’s an IPA shortage, can technicians turn this dilemma into an opportunity?Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazine caught up with Rick Hoffman, Sticklers™ National Accounts Manager, to ask about the IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hoffman does not recommend using IPA…

PCB Repair Depot Reduces Costs With Better Cleaning Tools and Fluids

The ChallengeBenchtop cleaning of PCBs is a tough challenge for process engineers. Dip-and-brush cleaning is an inexpensive but slow method that often leaves residues to migrate across circuits.Traditional high-pressure aerosols are convenient but can be expensive, environmentally wasteful and people don’t like breathing all those fumes. MicroCare offers a better way to clean circuit boards. There…

Midwest Manufacturer Reduces Energy Costs with Vapor Degreasing

Aqueous cleaning is a common and reliable cleaning choice for many companies. But one of the big disadvantages of water cleaning is the cost of electricity. A general rule-of-thumb is that any aqueous cleaning system will use ten times the energy of a vapor degreaser of comparable capacity. Water cleaning systems use far more electricity…

Solvents Tested by NASA for Critical Cleaning Tasks

NASA, the U.S. space agency, has a unique emphasis on reliability. NASA products are extremely expensive, have long operational lives, work with almost infinite sensitivity and operate in the harshest environment of all — outer space. So, it is reasonable that NASA is very cautious about introducing new technologies because problems, if any, may not…

Use Toxicity Ratings to Help Ensure Worker Safety

There are several dimensions to worker safety around chemicals: toxicity, corrosivity and flammability to name a few. While the risk of fire and corrosiveness may be well-understood, Mike Jones, MicroCare Vice President, feels that most end-users may not clearly understand toxicity and mistakes could be made that put workers at risk. One type of toxicity…

Safer Cleaning Choices Replace nPB in Aerosols for Worker Safety

Safer Cleaning Choices Replace nPB in AerosolsMany companies use aerosol degreasers containing a liquid called “normal propyl bromide” (nPB). Normal propyl bromide (also called nPB, 1-bromopropane, CAS #106-94-5) is a nonflammable organic industrial solvent based on the element bromine. The fluid has a molecular formula of C3H7B. It is a replacement for methylene chloride, perchloroethane…