I would say that if you are building a class 2 product this is fine but might be rejectable for class 3 for placement Do you show good evidence of wetting through the rest of the solder joint? It is interesting to hear and see. There doesn't appear to any method of holding the individual pins in position from the bottom picture for those that are out of alignment. It looks like the pins without the total metal tab are consistently off pad while the other lead that has a full metal tab extending to the other side of the connector body are in place. Kat -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Gregory Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 2:52 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Samtec SMT Connector Woe's...(again) Hi All, I'm running into a problem with some Samtec connectors again, and maybe you all can guide me on how I should handle this... First here's a picture of the connector: http://stevezeva.homestead.com/files/Samtec_Connector.jpg Next, here's a picture of the problem: http://stevezeva.homestead.com/files/Samtec_Solder_Joints.jpg QA is calling these solder joints as rejectable. These leads aren't gull-wing leads. I view them as some sort of mutated butt joint leads (sort of). I don't know what you would call them really, so I'm not quite sure what inspection criteria you would use. As you can see, the toe of every other lead doesn't sit 100% over the pad, and it continues like that through-out the length of the connector. I see that as a connector manufacturing issue, not something we have any control over. Here's a picture of the bottomside of the connector so that you can see what the bottom construction of the connector looks like: http://stevezeva.homestead.com/files/Samtec_Bottom.jpg In the top of the picture you see what Samtec calls a locking tab, one at each end of the connector. It has barbs that dig into the PCB and you have to force them into the holes. Obviously, we're hand placing them. What's funny is that they come in tape and reel and the have a pick and place pad on them! I don't know of any pick and place machine that has enough force to place these connectors and push the locking tabs into the holes so that the leads sit flush on the pads. I've also posted Samtec's drawing of the connector: http://stevezeva.homestead.com/files/SAMTEC_ROLC.pdf My gut feel is that the solder joints are acceptable. If the toe of these leads are tweeked a little, there's still a good percentage of the lead over top of the pads in which to form a decent solder joint because of the way the connector and leads are constructed. What say you all? Thanks! Steve Gregory P.S. I HATE Samtec connectors!!!!! --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 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 15.0 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 -----------------------------------------------------