High quality clean for Mil Spec electrical and fibre optic connectors

Industrial finishing equipment manufacturer Guyson International has recently supplied a Kerry Microsolve M250/2M mono-solvent ultrasonic cleaning system into one of Europe's leading manufacturers of commercial and Mil Spec electrical and fibre optic connectors, for undertaking a wide range of precision ‘in process’ cleaning routines, on numerous high end products; including connectors and interconnects.

The company’s products demand a critical high-quality level of cleaning as many are used in high-reliability environments in the military and aerospace.

The Microsolve cleaning system was installed as a pre-emptive action to remove any prospective quality issues before they arrive. “With this new Kerry ultrasonic system we can put a varied mix of components through the cleaning process and we know the components are clean of any slight trace residue of flux, grease or other contaminants (often left behind by previous operations) in hidden away and difficult to monitor places before we assemble the connectors, that theoretically could have caused high voltage or high contact resistance issues. Now we are confident these have all been removed and we have done all we can, quality wise, to remove any potential problems before they occur,” stated Dan Wilson, Quality Manager.

The PLC-controlled cleaning process has two stages; the stainless steel mesh component baskets are first lowered into unit one by an Autotrans single-axis transporter. This is designed to provide a controlled lift of the parts to be cleaned in and out of the cleaning tanks with the minimum of disturbance of the solvent vapour, thereby minimising expensive solvent losses and high concentrations of vapour emissions, and cutting any OEL (Occupational Exposure Limits) for operators.

Ultrasonic cleaning is carried out in the stage one tank, which is fitted with base mounted ultrasonic transducers powered by a Pulsatron series 300 generator operating at 38 kHz. Stage one also has electric solution heating with electronic temperature control digital indication and a pumping and filtration system.

The second stage is electrically heated, allowing the solvent to boil. The resulting vapour rinses the components, which are then dried by a dwell in the freeboard zone.

The solvent vapours are condensed by the primary reflux cooling coils and collected in the integral distillate trough. The solvent then passes through a dual purpose gravity or molecular sieve type water separator and returns to the stage one ultrasonic tank, displacing contaminated solvent into the boiling sump. Distillation, together with filtration of the solvent, ensures that the ultrasonic tank is maintained at a controlled level of cleanliness.

Free cleaning trials

Guyson offers a free component cleaning trial service with no obligation to buy, so if you think you could benefit from using Guyson cleaning equipment and would like to prove the cleaning process on your own components, please call Guyson International on +44 (0)1756 799911 or email info@guyson.co.uk.