I have had this issue too. All Tier 1 - 2 CM ovens are "nitrogen capable".

I actually specified Nitrogen on the build requirements when I was running
manufacturing engineering at Extreme Networks and after a time it was
interesting the lengths that the CM would go to on "studies" to try and
persuade my upper management team that it could be switched off!!!

There is some argument that can be applied to not using it, where for
instance the flux is a high activity system that is subsequently water
washed, but in general, the reality is, that the nitrogen reduces oxidation
of the soldering system and therefore improves the probability of getting a
"right first time" assembly with good probability of field reliability.

What price are they talking about? The cost of the nitrogen? Or the cost of
the vacuum wall piping runs to take it into the factory?

I do not believe I have ever seen the specification that you refer to
(although I have sometimes wished there was one!)

John



John Burke

(408) 515 4992

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Russ Nowland
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 10:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Nitrogen usage

Hello Technetter's,

Sometimes in life you find yourself in a pickle and wonder how the heck
you got there.  It always brings me to that famous quote "It is hard to
soar with the eagles when you work with a bunch of turkeys".

I have a question:  I am working with and "MAJOR" EMS that does not use
nitrogen with either Sn/Pb or Pb-free reflow.  In this day and age I have
never heard of this.  They have it available but will only use it if I
require it.  At a price, of course. They don't seem to take into account
it will improve their yields as well.

Is there an IPC, NEMI, or any other standard that requires/recommends N2
usage for either Sn/Pb or Pb-free reflow process?

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16
for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or
847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------