1) Place the braid over unwanted solder, preferably on the greatest solder build up so that it maximizes the contact of the braid to the surface area of the solder. 2) Next, place your iron tip over the wick at 45 degrees and allow heat to transfer...

Yes. As the copper is exposed to the open air, oxygen and moisture in the air interacts and oxidizes the copper. This oxidation is most apparent by the color of the wick. The brighter the copper, the fresher the wick. Oxidized copper will darken...

The temptation is to desolder an area and keep moving up the spool of braid. However, it’s best to work towards the end of the braid to isolate the heat. Once the desoldering braid is brought up to soldering temperature, the flux has been...

Desoldering braid or “wick” is a pre-fluxed copper braid that is used to remove solder, which allows components to be replaced and excess solder (e.g. bridging) to be removed. The soldering iron is applied to the wick as it sits...

Yes, Chemtronics offers a full line of ESD swabs. They include foam, knit polyester, or knit microfiber heads with static dissipative handles. The proprietary handle material has surface resistivity of 1.0 x 10_10 ohms/sq, and will dissipate...

No, cotton bud swabs (aka Q-tips) can’t be considered lint-free. Cotton tends to lead behind threads and particulates. Open cell polyurethane foam swabs are a common, very clean replacement for cotton. If harsh solvents are being used...

While cotton bud swabs (aka Q-tips) are commonly used for all kinds of precision cleaning, foam swabs are commonly used to reduce contamination from cotton threads and particulates. Foam swabs are usually made of open cell polyurethane for maximum...

Sterile swabs are free from bacteria or other living microorganisms. Common methods for sterilization include autoclaves, ETO (ethylene oxide gas), and Gamma irradiation. Sterile swabs are generally used for biological sample collection to avoid...

The shelf life of a product can be found on either the technical data sheet (TDS), available on the product page, or by looking on the certificate on conformance (COC). The COC can be downloaded by going to https://www.chemtronics.com/coc. Once...

If the can and valving is intact and undamaged, it will not leak or spoil, so can sit on a shelf for as long as 10 years.