Probably related Steve. If the pads look like copper, then it is either a total skip plate OR it has skipped nickel and the gold plate has dissolved into the copper. If you have some bare boards showing the issue it is a relatively simple task to get the board vendor to confirm with XRF. On a reliability issue I would say yes you are pretty much hosed. John -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Gregory Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 8:48 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] ENIG Problem... Hi All! Wouldn't you know it, all these postings about ENIG and all of a sudden an issue just started happening with some ENIG boards we're building. The problem is sporadic. We're building a double-sided SMT board using a SAC 305 paste, and I haven't seen any non-wetting problems with the SMT yet. We're selective wave soldering using SN96 and a RMA flux, and after about 250-300 boards my touch-up operators flagged me down and said that they're seeing some boards that have through-hole pads that aren't wetting no matter what they do. Here's some pictures: http://stevezeva.homestead.com/files/Non_Wetting_Pads.jpg http://stevezeva.homestead.com/files/Non_Wetting_Pads_2.jpg http://stevezeva.homestead.com/files/Non_Wetting_Pads_Close.jpg The pads look like bare copper...no nickle. Is this related to the latest thread? Like I said I haven't seen any SMT with this issue (yet), and it just started showing up...we've built a few hundred boards with no problems until now. I'm having the operators set the boards aside with the problem. Am I pretty much hosed with these boards? -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 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------