Hi Jeff - 
     
     We have been using nitrogen in our wave, reflow and rework stations 
     for over a year and been very satisfied with the results. Why did we 
     switch to it? It allows the use of very benign, low residue fluxes 
     that don't handle air environments very well and it aids in the 
     soldering of fine pitch components by altering the surface tension of 
     the solder. I don't believe that we get a "better" solder joint just 
     because of the inert gas - the design factors are more important. The 
     gas is a consumable and will increase the assembly processing costs 
     but you have to weigh that against the process yields. I have heard 
     that some people are now going away from nitrogen as the low residue 
     fluxes keep improving. Good luck.
     
     
     Dave Hillman
     Rockwell Collins
     [log in to unmask]
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Nitrogen in solder process
Author:  [log in to unmask] at ccmgw1
Date:    6/18/96 3:36 PM


Greetings!
     
I am hoping to get some feedback regarding the following issue:
     
We are looking at Nitrogen to see if it would provide payback in 
the following three areas:  1) Improve solder quality on 
conventional SMT,  2) Improve solder quality on fine pitch SMT, 
and 3) allow us to use low-residue flux which may remove the need 
for the wash so we can machine-place certain parts  that cannot 
go through the wash process. 
     
Understanding that Nitrogen use is fairly common in the 
electronics industry, we are trying to determine if it makes 
economic and strategic sense for us as a company. 
     
Any feedback/input/experiences welcome.
     
Thank you,
     
Jeff Nelson
Current Electronics, Inc.
(503)538-0626
[log in to unmask]