AAT combines best of two cleaning systems to create new Hi-rel cleaner

Austin American Technology (AAT) has combined the best capabilities of two successful cleaning systems - the popular X-Series multi-solvent cleaning system and the high-precision Mega series cleaners - into a single high-capacity, single-chamber closed-loop regenerative system, the X-40F.

The X-40F was developed for a Hi-rel military waterless application, cleaning product up to 35-lbs. and 32" x 18" in size. The application needed the high-precision cleaning chemistry and technology provided by the Mega system, but needed the cleaning chamber capacity of the X-series as well as its material handling capabilities.

The result, according to David Jeffers, AAT's Engineering Manager, is a hybrid system that combines the best of both machines into an essentially new process whereby the single processing chamber minimizes the unit's footprint, while specialized technologies enable wash, rinse, and dry cycle automation in one chamber with minimized dragout or cross-contamination, plus greater process efficiency and reduced costs, due to the use of a new proprietary ion bed filtration/regeneration system allowing the rinse solvent to be recycled and cleaned ionically after each cycle.

Austin American Technology's X-Series cleaners' fully automated systems are typically used for stencil and misprint cleaning. They do not require transferring between wash, rinse, and dry, and are capable of fully automated operation using a wide range of chemistries.

Both systems were combined in many ways, according to Jeffers. The spray in air technology of the X-Series worked excellently with the customer approved cleaning chemistries, resulting in clean boards and back planes that met and exceeded the customer's expectations, these results are attributed to the X-Series patented method of rotational spraying which creates zones of constantly changing force.

For more information, visit www.aat-corp.com