Two things:

1 Dr. Paul T. Vianco, of Sandia National Laboratories, wrote this third
edition of the "Soldering Handbook", as a project of the American
Welding Society C3 Committee on Brazing and Soldering. This is the long
over-due update of the 1977 legendary "AWS Soldering Handbook." In Dr.
Vianco's words, the purpose of the text is to provide information to,
"…allow soldering technology to be more fully utilized in advance
structural joining applications, as well as to enhance its continued use
as a critical assembly technology for the electronics industry."

Initially, I was uneasy that this focus on "advanced structural joining
applications" would distract from my focus on soldering in electronic
assembly. It did not. Actually, many of the structural topics, such as
soldering with tin / zinc alloys in heat exchanger applications, were
interesting. Other structural topics, such as soldering a 'tube into a
manifold', could be visualized in an electronic assembly context.
Finally, one could easily skip those topics without loosing the intent
of the material or the flow of the text. The book is well written, well
edited, and intelligent.

The chapters of the book are: Fundamentals Of Soldering Technology,
Solder Materials, Substrate Materials (solderable surface materials),
Fluxes, Solder Pastes, Assembly Processes, Inspection Techniques For
Product Acceptance And Process Optimization, and Environment, Safety And
Health.

Comprising nearly one third of the book, the Fundamentals Of Soldering
Technology chapter is excellent in its breadth and straightforward
explanations of metallurgy, solder joint design, alloy properties, and
materials measurements. For instance, I can now read phase diagrams to
determine the material compositions (phases) that can form as an alloy
cools from liquid to solid. This eluded me at college enduring a
materials course and later staring at van Vlack.

Realistically, the Assembly Processes chapter warrants a book in its own
right, given the range of assembly processes involved in structural and
electronic soldering. Dr. Vianco limits the description of material
receipt, pre-assembly, soldering, post-assembly cleaning, and storage
processes to the top level.

"Inspection Techniques For Product Acceptance And Process Optimization"
gives a good overview of the use of laboratory analytical instruments
and mechanical stress testing. It misses the boat by not addressing
mathematics based improvement techniques, such as process
characterization and design of experiments. Finally, the section of this
chapter discussing acceptable quality level (AQL) is an anachronism for
companies aiming for six sigma process control.

2 Paul T. Vianco will answer questions OnBoard ForumTM
(http://www.SMTnet.com) Begins: Oct. 24, 2000 12:00 AM ET Ends: Oct. 26,
2000 5:00 PM ET

Dave Fish

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