What are Dry Boxes? – SMT Learning Center

Of all the product reliability problems facing assemblers, internal component damage in moisture-sensitive devices is one of the most easily preventable. It requires no calibrating, there is no process drift to monitor—you simply need proper storage.

What the Problem Is

Moisture sensitive devices (MSDs) are simply components that are sensitive to humidity in the air. Even in climate-controlled facilities, there can be enough ambient humidity to allow moisture to collect inside the component. What happens when you heat water? It turns to steam and expands. What happens when something expands in a closed space? It exerts pressure on the enclosure. When this happens inside a component, the component packaging can crack. Boards can also experience moisture-related problems when heating. This is what leads to delamination.

And the solution to both problems is storage, storage, storage.

The Dry Box Solution 

Dry boxes—also known as dry cabinets or desiccant dry cabinets—provide humidity-controlled storage for all of your moisture sensitive components, boards, and assemblies.

IPC J-STD-0338.1 and JEDEC standards for handling and storing MSDs recommend a relative humidity (RH) of <5% or less. Again, your air conditioning system cannot guarantee this. A humidity controlled storage space, however, can. Our dry cabinets (V series) and baking dry cabinets (H series) are both designed to provide ongoing, maintenance-free storage that meets or exceeds these specifications. The H-series baking dry cabinets add the additional ability to restore pre-reflow MSDs that have been exposed to humidity greater above 5% RH. "Restoring" in this sense means safely removing the moisture from the component, so that when it is reflowed, it won't crack or popcorn.

We have dry boxes and cabinets sized for every need, in stock, and ready to ship. Check out our ULTRA DRY MSD dry cabinets and baking dry cabinets today .

Manncorp has been in business and operating for over 50 years producing and supplying machines that assemble circuit boards and place components for LEDs. Our engineers know exactly what to look for and are beyond critical of any product that we consider going through our testing process.

Manncorp stands behind its quality products and provides customer support and service when you purchase from us.

Questions? East Coast: 215-830-1200 | West Coast: 858-490-6266 | Email: sales@manncorp.com