TechNetters,

I'm looking at a what seems to me like a good sized piece of 303 stainless steel, plated with nickel-tin, a standoff about 7 mm in diameter, 6 mm long, with a wall thickness of about 1 mm.  Using a metcal iron, our folks are having trouble soldering this to a PC board.  One of the quality inspectors says there has not been a problem in the past, with this part, using the metcal iron.  The standoffs have been in stock for 1 year after nickel-tin plating.

Here are two questions I think of:

(1)  Is 1 year beyond the shelf life of nickel-tin plating?  Operators think there is a "coating" on the standoffs that inhibits soldering.

(2)  Any ideas about a preferred soldering technique for a part like this?

Thanks for any feedback.  All production supervisors are out for the day, so QA is trying to handle this one...Lou Hart  Compunetix

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