haha..I am a HE. Thanks guys for sharing your view. Based on so many contributions, can I conclude that the paint is splash prior to the Mounting process? As for who create it, both the supp & cust have suspicious as the paint could have inhere "after supp completed their fluxing process" and "prior to customer Mounting" process since the paint is splash over the those patterns(Resist & Silk print)surface. As for some of the paint seem to be under the pattern, I think maybe is due to the photo not showing lighter orange tone well thus making it look like it disappear. As I can see majority of the paints is covering over the board surface. Anyway, the evident is already gone as supp already washed off the paint when they do a reflux on the board. On Mon, 2 Oct 2006 12:49:44 -0500, Stadem, Richard D. <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Dear Mr. (Ms?) Jerky, If you look closely, you can see evidence of the "paint" or discoloration only on some of the pads and along some of the traces, but not on the soldermask area around it. It also appears to have blocked the etching process, leaving etching flaws between the traces, especially those on the left side of the image. I say appears, because they may not be copper bridges, but paint bridges. But based on the fact that none of the paint appears on the board surrounding certain pads but is covering those pads, it has to be a problem that originated during fabrication of the pwb. On the other hand, there are areas of solder mask covered with the paint. It is hard to judge from the picture, but is it possible that you have two problems, one being a poor plating process, the other splattered paint from some other process during assembly or fabrication? I think some of the orange in the picture is unplated copper, some orange that is a slightly darker shade is paint. -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Burke Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 12:14 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Customer or Supplier Inherent Defect? Share your views There are indications that the paint was on the board prior to solder paste and reflow. John -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Saint Jerky Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 4:49 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Customer or Supplier Inherent Defect? Share your views I encounter 1pcs of excess paint on PCB returned from customer. Upon analysis by Supplier, they concluded that customer created the defect. The details is as below: Defect: Paint spread over the PCB Analysis: 1) The affected surface was subjected to the fluxing process again and the stain was found to be removed from the process. 2) The stain is unlikely to have been incurred during the bare board processing, as fluxing process is conducted just before Final Inspection and Packing, 3) If the stain is incurred during the bare board processing, it will have been cleaned up during the fluxing process prior to inspection. 4) Final Inspection and packing does not uses any material that yield such a colour substance Photo: http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/7362/bareboardzd6.jpg Based on the photo, tell me what you guys think? The chances that customer created it is higher or supplier? Come and share your views for my reference. Thanks. --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------