Thanks again! To get back a bit to Steve's observation: the boards indeed have 2 layers of soldermask. But it has 3oz of Cu on all the layers. Would it be necessary to have 2 layers of SM, just because of the thickness of the traces? If not, why would one lay down extra SM? Thanks, Ioan Tempea, ing. Ingénieur Principal de Fabrication / Senior Manufacturing Engineer T | 450.967.7100 ext.244 E | [log in to unmask] W | www.digico.cc N'imprimer que si nécessaire - Print only if you must -----Message d'origine----- De : Guy Ramsey [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Envoyé : August-19-10 9:26 AM À : [log in to unmask] Objet : Re: [TN] Bulging solder on the sides of QFP leads No, I would not consider it a defect, given the information you have provided. IMHO, it is better to optimize toward excess solder than insufficient. Solder shorts are obvious and easy to troubleshoot, compared to troubleshooting an intermittent insufficient solder joint. Guy ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------