I have seen this before. Of course you are probably forced to deal with a purchasing agent who does not make design decisions. They must like the crinkle finish and flow under the mask issues there... how funny. SMOBC is the standard. It works. The other method of soldermask over solder is just not wise. However, the customer is always right.... even when they are wrong. (I can sense your frustration.... now... let go your feelings of aggression... and your journey to the 'dark side' will be complete.... join me, and together we will bring order to the PCB galaxy... muhaahaahhaa! ) <grin - it's Friday> Have a great weekend Steve... Bill Brooks PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D., C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 -----Original Message----- From: Steve Gregory [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 6:52 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Solder Mask over Tin/Lead... Had a really frustrating conference call today. Our customer is standing firm that they will not change their drawings on their fabs that specify that everything needs to be coated with tin/lead before solder mask. Their arguement is that they've never had any problems before, so why should they change anything...and I percieved that they blamed our assembly processes for the mask adhesion issues that we were seeing. What do you do in a situation like this? I'm trying to gather as much information as I can that shows that anything other than SMOBC is risky, but during the conference call, anything that I tried to say was dismissed...because they say that they've been doing this for years, and this is the first time that they have heard from any of their subcontractors that there is a problem. I suppose that there won't be any good answers for this, we'll have to deal with this the best that we can. Sure makes life interesting...the customer is always right, and we're all about customer satisfaction. -Steve Gregory- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e 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 or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e 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 or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------