Rob,

Have you considered carbon ink in place of the gold?  We have been using carbon ink for several years (MUCH more cost-effective than selective NiAu plating), and and our customers have been very satisfied with the results.  I don't know, however, about how carbon ink cost would compare with Alpha Level.

George

----------
> We've recently had some problems with flaking of gold plate on keypad fingers on
> a pcb.
>
> Consequently, we're considering changing the finish to AlphaLevel, although
> we've been unable to find any major examples of companies who are using
> AlphaLevel 'unsoldered' in this type of application.
>
> Does anyone have any experience of the long term problems we might encounter
> if we make this change, eg degradation of contact causing erratic keypress
> operation?
>
> Regards
>
> Rob

################################################################
TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c
################################################################
To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body:
To subscribe:   SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name>
To unsubscribe:   SIGNOFF TechNet 
################################################################
Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information.
For the technical support contact Dmitriy Sklyar at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.311
################################################################