Steve - On issue also is that by processing the PCB through the soldermask development chemistry, a slight affect is seen on the tin/lead which creates an oxide layer. This layer does reduce the solderability of the board and also the shelf life of the parts. This condition also will have higher ionic contamination levels in your products being delivered. The users must understand the photoimagble soldermask are not compatible with a tin/lead conductive pattern. Jeffrey Bush Director, Quality Assurance and Technical Support 76 Technology Drive - POB 1890 Brattleboro, Vermont 05302-1890 Tel. 802.257.4571.21 Fax. 802.257.0011 [log in to unmask] http://www.vtcircuits.com -----Original Message----- From: Steve Gregory [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 9:52 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 -----------------------------------------------------