Fortunately for us, Ioan was kind enough to forward a copy of the ERSA DFM guidelines to us, which I never could find on the ERSA website (or I would provide a link to it) but the name of it is VF_Layout_eng_V203.ppt Anyway it was VERY helpful, they did a good job on it. If anyone is interested, they put a restriction on the height of components near the board edge, a bottom-side height restriction, and a clearance around every soldering point depending on the nozzle diameter. We have decided to design for a 6mm nozzle by default, and for that one there should be no components in a 3mm radius of the CENTER of the nozzle (that's for single-point soldering, for rows they want 3mm from the edge of the nozzle, not the center ) and an EXTRA 3mm clearance to the conveyor rail if the soldering point is close to the board edge. thanks for the help, everyone (and a SPECIAL thank you to Ioan!)(smile) Jack On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 9:42 AM, Dave Schaefer <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Jack, > > Clearance is dictated by the Nozzle Size of the select solder machine. We > use Nozzle Size +3mm diameter as a clearance rule. For most products we end > up with a 11mm (0.433") keepout diameter ... we did at times violate but > only with smt components that could be glued and not damaged by being > subjected to secondary select solder. > > hth, > Dave > > --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------