Sticky residue is normally the flux. IPA doesn’t dissolve flux, it just makes it runny. So if you gently wipe it off, all you are doing is smearing flux everywhere. Once the IPA evaporates, the flux turns into a horrible sticky mess.
The solution is to add a bit more IPA to the board, wait a minute or so for it to soften the flux, and then use something like a kitchen roll, wipe in small circles, changing which bit of the kitchen roll you are using as you do (so that you don’t smear what’s already been wiped up back onto the board).
For intricate places around ICs, you can use the same process, but rather than wiping the kitchen roll on the board, use something like a pair of tweezers to push the roll down on the board and move back and forth around and between pins.
#PCB Assembly
Read More: Automated Optical Inspection (AOI)
