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September 1998

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Subject:
From:
"Stephen R. Gregory" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
TechNet E-Mail Forum.
Date:
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 16:35:58 EDT
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In a message dated 9/22/98 11:02:04 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< Dear Technetters,
 Recently, we faced a solderability problem on our fab. I have the following
 questions for assembly houses.
 (1) How many assembly houses perform solderability test using solder-sample
 fab?
 (2) Is there any information as how effective this test is? I mean any lot
 went bad still after doing solderability test (at assembly house).

 My management wants to know the overall industry trend and effectiveness of
 the test to make decision.

 re,
 Ken Patel

Hi Ken!

This is the fifth contract assembly company I've worked for, and the only time
I ever did solderability tests were with boards from a turnkey account that
were drop shipped to us...and only then because the customer wanted us to to
satisfy their procedures.

I'll speak for myself, but I think I'm not a whole different than anybody else
in this regard. We're water soluble because we can't always count on getting
nice solderable PCB's and parts in the consigned kits that we get. It's kinda'
like what your mom used to tell you when you were a little kid; "Don't put
that in your mouth, you don't know where that's been!" ...it's the same thing
with the parts and PCB's, I don't know where they've been (but I won't try and
put them in my mouth either), so that's why we use an active organic acid flux
that'll almost solder to dirt.

If I were to do solderability tests and find something that might look like
it'll give me problems, and then go to the G.M. and tell him that we can't
start a kit because I found some fabs that don't pass a solderability test,
I'd get told to find some stronger flux because in a contract assembly
environment once the materials hit the recieving dock, the clock starts
ticking, and you've got to get the assemblies built whatever it takes...

That's really not as foolhardy as it might seem, because it's been longer than
I can remember since I've run across any real solderability issues with PCB's,
but parts are a different story. I've talked with a few of my Bud's that work
at other companies who do solderabilty testing, and they say that 99.9% of the
time they're testing fabs that are good...so much so that they are thinking of
dropping the requirement altogether, and only using a solderability test to
verify problems that may be discovered on the floor since the incidents are so
few and far between...

-Steve Gregory-

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