Dear TechNetters: My company recently produced bare PCBs with ENIG finish for a client who now wants HASL. I can't strip the ENIG and the routed PCBs are too small for HASL processing (conveyor or dip). Here's my client's concern: 1. ENIG will poison his solder pot. 2. ENIG will introduce risk of thru-hole component attachment failure On the poison solder pot issue, my client will only assemble 100 PCBs every 30-days. Each PCB has a total solderable surface area of 6.94 sq." At an average measure of 4.05uI of gold I can't see the drag-in being an issue of concern. The small amount of gold introduced to the solder pot will likely be diluted into nothingness by solder replenishment across the next 30-days. On the embrittlement issue, virtually everything I find in the TechNet archives (and elsewhere) concerns SMT designs and applications. Here again the concern is with an all thru-hole design with no SMDs in the build. If it's important, the nickel thickness averages 118uI. Q1: Is there a real risk to solder pot poisoning? Q2: Is there a real risk that PTH components are going to unplug due to embrittlement? Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated - Robert Lazzara VP, Business Development Circuit Connect, Inc. --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------