Products : Stencil Wiping Rolls

Many engineers are not aware of the static dangers that conventional wiping rolls can cause. They figure that if the machine is grounded, it doesn’t matter if the paper is not antistatic. Many eyebrows are raised when they learn of the dangers and many heads nod in agreement after they have performed their own tests.

Conventional rolls contain a high percentage of polyester. Everyone knows how polyester clothes can cling and cause static sparks. A conventional roll wipes across a metal stencil back and forth. Since the metal stencil sits in the middle of a nylon mesh it is not grounded. This action is very similar to rubbing a balloon on your hair. Therefore, static is building on the metal stencil. When a board comes close to the stencil-POW! A miniature-lightening bolt will damage components and cause voids in solder traces and poses risks when highly volatile solvents and vapors are present.

Another feature of GREEN MONSTER!™ ESD stencil wiping rolls is that no weak paper or tissue fibers are used. Paper or tissue is typically only held together by weak hydrogen bonds which are quickly destroyed when wet; similar to how a newspaper turns to mush when wet. To make matters worse, wet paper does not hold up well when cleaning the under side of a stencil that is almost as rough as a cheese grater. Instead of paper or tissue, GREEN MONSTER!™ uses much thicker and coarser rayon fibers that readily absorbs solvents.

Because the fibers are coarser, the porosity is higher and more vacuum can be utilized to further draw air and clean solder paste from the apertures.

Another benefit is that coarse fibers are conducive to an aggressive cleaning surface. As you can see from the pictures on the right, there are many voids between these fibers to collect solder paste as opposed to a smooth paper surface. This aggressive surface is essential in cleaning lead-free solder as it is "stickier" and more difficult to remove. The green color keeps this product consistent with other green color coded lead-free products