Dear Technetters,
We are trying to eliminate the occurence of solder balls in our
production line by trialling various aperture shapes and reductions on
the screen printer stencil. The nature of the solder balls suggests
that paste is being trapped under the component and then forms a solder
ball which adheres to the side of the component. I have seen this type
of solder ball referred to as a "squeeze ball". We have tried the so
called "home plate" (trapezoidal) shaped apertures with considerable
success on nearly all the components except for the 0603 capacitors.
I would be interested to hear any ideas or suggestions of other aperture
shapes or designs which could help solve this problem.
Thanks in advance,
Clinton Windsor