With a 6 mil and no reduction, you end up with area ratio of 0.69, which is very close to the critical value of 0.66. I am assuming you will need to do a reduction on the aperture size which put you under 0.66. you will lose paste release repeatability below 0.66. You could go with a 5 mil step on that part, or even 4 mils if the paste volume is sufficient for soldering. Assuming a 2 mil reduction, your area ratio would be 0.7 with 5 mils (0.87 with 4 mils), which is still above the 0.66 threshold for laser cut stainless. Also ask if the stencil house can use a Ni based alloy or newer finer grain steel which gives smoother aperture walls as compared to standard stainless, thereby improving release. Amol Kane | Process Engineer Catalyst Manufacturing Services, Inc. 941 Route 38, Owego NY 13827 Phone: (607) 687-7669 Extn 349 | Website: www.catalystems.com -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jean-Francois Bissonnette Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 8:55 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Stencil Thickness Hello Technetters, We have to order a stencil and I'm not too sure what to do in this situation. I use IPC-7525A for selecting the stencil thickness. While 99%+ of the components are way within the Laser Range, 6mil thickness, there is a component which leads are 11mil x 34mil. In the 6mil thickness chart, this falls in the electroform range. What I'm a risking if I still select laser cut, 6 mil thickness? What would you guys suggest? Thanks to all! JF ______________________________________________________________________ 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 16.0 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 For additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________ 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 16.0 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 For additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------