We are wave soldering double sided PHT boards using  a No Clean flux.
There is a proposal to replace the hot air levelled solder over bare
copper(HAL ) finish with gold flash, about 5u inch thick, over 100u inch
of nickel.

The proposal would allow us to drop the carbon ink screening requirement
used for contacts to a rubber keypad.

I see no other benefits to this, only the following problems:- gold
contamination of the solder pot and weaker solder joint strength. Does
anyone know of any other benefits?
Alan Shaw

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