Rich,

I've used the pens once in an evaluation type situation, never had any luck with the
conductive pen. The mask overcoat pen is good. We had welded circuits in the past,
proudly I can state we have not had to perform this defeated act in a long
time...Anyway, my comment, the conductive pen will only cause more problems. If a weld
is out of the question I'd send the boards back for credit and replacement...By the
way, are they resolving the issues in imaging causing this problem?

Franklin D Asbell
Network Circuits, Inc.
Irving, Texas 75061

Rich Lasko wrote:

> Good morning everyone!
>
> A little background....I am working with a vendor of ours ( that
> manufactures the pcb for electronic assemblies) and we have had some issues
> with small artwork opens in the traces.  (The pcb is double sided with dark
> blue soldermask and has many small traces throughout the pcb which makes the
> almost impossible to see visually).  At this time, the board does not have
> an electrical test on it.  Our vendor has advised us that the root cause of
> the small artwork opens is either minor dust or scratch on the artwork that
> happens at their facility.  The opens are random in nature but are very
> difficult to detect with visual inspection.  Our vendor has agreed to
> implement electrical test (which is fine for future orders) but we have
> approx. (15) fully populated boards that have these artwork opens that need
> repair.   Total of the 15 boards are worth $3000.
>
> So.....in order to "repair" the existing assemblies, our vendor has
> indicated to us that they will be using Circuitwork's Conductive Pen and
> then the Overcoat pen on top.
>
> My questions to everyone are:
>
> 1.) Is this type of repair an "approved" industry standard for this type of
> defect?  How many people use it?  Is it reliable - long term?
> 2.) Other than IPC 7711/7721, are there any other documented repair
> procedures for this type of defect?
>
> Any help on this would be great!  Peace!
>
> Rich
>
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