Aqueous Technologies Trident Pallet Cleaning System

The Trident Pallet Cleaning System is an automated aqueous defluxing unit designed to clean pallets, fixtures, and PCB assemblies. It can secure multiple pallets/fixtures at once using extra-tall adjustable tines welded to a removable stainless-steel pallet rack, enabling batch cleaning of fixtures common in SMT production lines.

It cleans any flux — including no-clean, rosin, water-soluble fluxes — and can also clean assemblies that have gone through reflow. The system is engineered to remove baked-on fluxes, which are common in pallet/fixture usage.

The machine provides fully automatic cycles:

• Wash: spray wash solution via asymmetrical twin jet nozzles
• Rinse: rinse with DI-water or clean rinse sequence
• Cleanliness verification: built-in resistivity monitoring measures ionic residues in rinse water to verify cleanliness
• Dry: high-power forced hot-air convection plus radiant drying to remove moisture.

The system is available in two main environmental-impact configurations: Low Discharge and Zero Discharge.

• Low Discharge still uses filtered discharge rinse but limits effluent.
• Zero Discharge recycles wash/rinse water, no external drain discharge.

Some of the key specs are:

• Dimensions (Low Discharge): ~ 44.75″ W × 44.25″ D × 70″ H
• Dimensions (Zero Discharge): ~ 56″ W × 42.25″ D × 70″ H
• Electrical requirement: 208-240 VAC, 3-phase, 40 amps
• Plumbing: stainless steel, selection of 20 asymmetrically placed nozzles (15°), welded steel frame, powder-coat finish.

The pallet system uses a removable stainless-steel rack with extra-tall adjustable tines so multiple pallets (or fixtures) can be loaded and secured simultaneously. The rack is oscillating to mitigate spray shadowing (areas shielded by fixtures) so even underside or shaded areas are cleaned more effectively.

Key control & monitoring features include:

• Touchscreen user interface with graphical recipes
• Built-in resistivity / cleanliness verification, to ensure rinse water meets programmed cleanliness thresholds.
• Unlimited program recipes (wash / rinse / dry sequences)
• Automatic chemical dosing/mixing systems.
• Optional real-time chemical concentration monitoring.

Some considerations include:

• Space and power requirements are significant (it’s tall, wide, and needs three-phase supply) so facility infrastructure must support it.
• Maintenance of filters, nozzles, and chemical concentration systems will be needed to sustain performance.
• The weight capacity of pallets / fixtures should be within the heavy-duty rack’s reinforcement limits; overloading may reduce effectiveness or cause mechanical issues.
• For very large or unusually shaped pallets/fixtures, spray-shadowing may still occur despite the oscillating rack and nozzles; careful loading and fixture orientation may be needed.