There were several papers and posters presented at APEX this year that discussed transfer efficiency. I agree adding a step into your stencil is a viable option and I do it often. You need to have room for the step as there will be an area in the step that will leave paste residue on the stencil which can cause problems. I also agree about talking to your stencil manufacturer about the technology they can provide. Also at APEX there was a lot of discussion in the conference sessions and at the IPC-7525 committee meeting about Nano coatings. Flextronics presented a very good study which proved that the nano coatings allowed area ratios down to .5 with a laser cut electropolished stencil. Or you could consider a step and the nano coatings to really improve your performance. If you have access to the conference proceedings the Flextronics paper was S35-01, and the poster was from Bill Coleman at Photo Stencil and it is P-22. They all clearly showed nano coatings providing a major improvement. You can also gain major improvement with electroformed with nano coatings. Good luck, Russell Nowland Alcatel-Lucent Advanced Manufacturing Engineer Address: 14000 Quail Spring Parkway, Suite 100 Oklahoma City, OK 73134 email: [log in to unmask] Desk: 405-302-1660 Cell: 405-203-0034 Fax: 405-302-1622 -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jean-Francois Bissonnette Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 7:55 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 -----------------------------------------------------