On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 13:57:56 +0200, Adam Seychell
<
a_seychell@...> wrote:
>
> If tools are corroding several meters away then it must be HCl gas,
> rather than splashes or wouldn't travel so far. What etchant are you
> running ? There should be almost no oder from a open jar of etchant at
> room temp. Keep HCl concentration under 2 Molar. If your stuck with a
> fuming etchant,(i.e an open container of etchant will corrode steel in
> its vicinity) then you have to keep it sealed. All I can recommend is
> keep the place well ventilated during etching, and seal air tight when
> not in use. You must of course also eliminate exterior splashes due to
> bubbles.
I use CuCl, but maybe my fumes fear needs explaining:
Years ago, when i still used HCl H2O2 Tray etching with way too high
concentrations of all, i forgot a small etchant tray on a workbench with a
nice new set of drills (and other stuff) about half a meter away. After
several days (maybe even weeks) when i discovered the situation the drills
did not look new any more :-(.
This was a open tray, and i haven't discovered problems with my etcher
(rubber seal, but not really airtight just a lid) so far. There is no odor
with the current etcher when it is just standing around, but when the pump
is pumping like 100l/h of air through those 100l will have some fumes in
them and will definitely leave the etcher.
On another occassion i discovered it is not good to store steel spray cans
near a closed PE bottle of HCl, the can seam started rusting. This was
after months.
I will put a few experimental nails around the etcher, and try to put all
tools further away, then it will be fine to run open-loop i hope. When any
of the nails start to rust i must do something.
thanks
ST