They may have changed materials in the alloy on you...
Check with the manufacturer of the terminals to make sure the alloy has not
changed. Or if that isn't it, then maybe the plating process is affecting
the brittleness of the material? Dead soft copper is very malleable and
brass is less malleable. Most of the terminals I have used in electronics
are tin plated brass with the only exception being copper eyelets back in
the 1970's.

I assume that you have not changed the hole size in the board and the board
thickness is the same... The speed with which the material is 'cold formed'
may also come into play... If you are using automated tooling the stops on
the swage tool will have something to do with preventing over stretching the
material to the cracking point. The 'very old' terminals comment you made
makes me suspect that the materials have changed rather than the process of
forming them with the Cambion tool. Just a guess. Work with your supplier
and see if the old batch of terminals came from a different source or used
different materials.

Best regards,

Bill Brooks - KG6VVP
PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D.+, C.I.I.
Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510
e-mail:[log in to unmask]
http://www.dtwc.com
http://pcbwizards.com

----------------



        Hi Technetters:
     I would like to know if anybody has experienced difficulties in flaring
the flange of solder terminals. On J-std-001C 6.2.3 it states that the angle
of flare shall be between 35 and 120 deg. Some terminals crack even if they
are flared at 36 deg.  Other terminals can be flared at 120 deg and not
crack. I suspect that the plating finish has a lot to do with it.
       Regards,
       Ramon

---------------------------------------------------
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
-----------------------------------------------------