Yeah, that seems like a good way to put it: Flux Chemistry is Oxide Specific.
I’ve discussed this for years, and I usually fumble over the words, but it is that simple. Today we are bringing back some data we discussed last week to demonstrate how you shouldn’t base your flux selection decision on just one data point.
It is a common misconception that fluxes are all the same, and that some are just ‘stronger’ or ‘weaker’. There are trends to this (as I was discussing in my last post) but let’s give the flux chemists out there some credit – the formulations are designed, and one important criteria is the type of oxide it is created to reduce. Industry standard testing has always been focused on copper, but what if the flux was designed to work best on Ag instead? What if it was never intended to be used on ENIG? If you’re only using copper coupon tests and copper mirror tests, you might be missing the best flux for your application.
Call or email our Application Engineers to find the best solution for your application. They have experience with all the newest fluxes in thousands of different applications, and they work with the soldering industry’s leading Chemists and Metallurgists.
~Jim