Electronic component cleaning in remanufacturing

Nowadays in the automotive industry a move away from purely mechanical to electronic assemblies can be observed. In order to protect these electronic assemblies from environmental influences as well as from undesirable access, they often are sealed with different compounds e.g. silicone gels or epoxy resins. Therefore new challenges for the remanufacturing of electronic assemblies with regard to removal of sealants, a definition, creation, and analysis of technical cleanliness have arisen. These are taken up as a part of the research project "eCleanER - Electronic Component Cleaning Engineering for Remanufacturing". First research results about various procedures for the gentlest removal of sealants from electronic assemblies are for the first time described in this paper.