Not in the least surprising. May I refer you to Chapter 8 "Contamination due to components" of a certain book? This does not specifically refer to connectors, but more to hot-tinned parts, lead frames, the plastics, electroplated parts and so on. In it, there is mention of tinning using unwashed or poorly washed water-soluble fluxes and horrendous levels of measured ionic contamination. In Appendix 1 of the same work, I made a suggestion for a standard for the cleanability of components. This idea has occasionally been referenced in other papers but we still await, many years later, such a standard. Brian On 15/07/2011 20:19, Steven Kelly wrote: > Hi All, > Today is my day for headaches. > We assembled a flex circuit (put a couple of connectors on) and did the Ionic contamination test after our standard cleaning procedure and failed. > After much scratching of heads we decided to take a bare flex - solder it - not add the connectors and test - passed the ionic test easily. > We then took the connectors and put them in the ionic unit - one hit 76 ug/cm2 as received and 6.9 after cleaning. The other was 9.6 ug/cm2 as received and 6.6 after cleaning. > So my question is - do the connector manufacturers have to sign up for a certain cleanliness level and second question what the *&?" do I do now. > Regards Steve Kelly > > --------------------------------------------------- > 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 -----------------------------------------------------