For normal day-to-day assembly of electronics (SMT or sub-assemblies), we do not use finger cots or gloves, and never have in the 18 years that I've been here. Jim Marsico Senior Engineer Production Engineering EDO Electronics Systems Group [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> -----Original Message----- From: Jim Kittel [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 9:08 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Cotton Gloves/Finger Cots Fellow TechNeters: We are questioning the need for finger protection against contamination during CCA assembly. The story has always been body oils and salts deposited on the solderable surfaces will undermine solderability. Since our process uses robust RMA fluxes and SMT pastes (at the expense of cleaning) and since much of our assembly (especially SMT) is automated, I would like to re-visit that issue. I have heard rumors of a few companies not using any finger protection and I have heard of another using finger protection in assembly but not in the stockroom area. A search of the TechNet archives provided some interesting comments on finger cots and gloves, but nothing relating to the detriments of not using them. I would appreciate hearing your comments on 'if' and 'where' you are using either finger cots or cotton gloves (or both) and also if there are any substantiated cases where finger contamination actually caused solderability issues on real product. Thanks, Jim Kittel Sr. Process Engineer L-3 Communications ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d 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 delivery of Technet send the following message: SET Technet NOMAIL Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d 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 delivery of Technet send the following message: SET Technet NOMAIL Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------