Yes, what Tom is saying is completely correct! The problem occurs when your design places the ceramic capacitors to close to the edge or to colse to the V-cut used a the break away. If you make a special fixture you still need to avoid clamping down directly on the SMT component parts and so you still have to bendo or flex the board during the separtation of the various pannelized boards or when breaking away the breackaways after SMT and PTH assembly is complete. So you must set your design rules to place these capacitors further inboard from the edges than you would like. Once you have done this the problem will go away, at least where my boards are concerned! Best Doug Mills From: IN%"[log in to unmask]" 18-DEC-1995 09:57:55.14 To: IN%"[log in to unmask]" CC: Subj: Cracking Capacitors Another source for information regarding cracked capacitors is through the Surface Mount Technology Association Academy. I attended a very excellent seminar given by John Maxwell entitled: "Surface Mount Problem Solving: Design and Production" where a great deal of time was spent on ceramic chip cracking. Two items mentioned which may get you started are (A) most failures of this type occur at the de-paneling stage and (B) the positioning of the crack on the chip may point to the failure mechanism. I surely hope that at least the s.m.t.a. reference source may assist you. Happy Holidays! Tom Eshelman, Enthone-OMI 1.800.548.9801 ext. 7257 [log in to unmask] Return-path: <[log in to unmask]> Received: from HNLVX by sfov1.verifone.com (PMDF V4.3-7 #5451) id <[log in to unmask]>; Mon, 18 Dec 1995 09:57:42 -1000 Received: from TPEV1 by verifone.com (PMDF V4.3-7 #5449) id <[log in to unmask]>; Mon, 18 Dec 1995 07:58:10 -1000 Received: from HNLVX by tpev1.verifone.com (PMDF V4.3-7 #5453) id <[log in to unmask]>; Tue, 19 Dec 1995 01:53:40 +0800 Received: from SFOV1 by verifone.com (PMDF V4.3-7 #5449) id <[log in to unmask]>; Mon, 18 Dec 1995 07:53:28 -1000 Received: from simon.ipc.org (168.113.24.64) by sfov1.verifone.com (PMDF V4.3-7 #5451) id <[log in to unmask]>; Mon, 18 Dec 1995 09:52:29 -1000 Received: from ipc.org by simon.ipc.org via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/940406.SGI) id JAA10047; Mon, 18 Dec 1995 09:34:34 -0800 Received: by ipc.org (Smail3.1.28.1 #2) id m0tRjT5-0000MIC; Mon, 18 Dec 95 11:35 CST Resent-date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 09:34:34 -0800 Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 11:39:38 -0500 Resent-from: [log in to unmask] From: [log in to unmask] Subject: Cracking Capacitors Resent-sender: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Resent-message-id: <"2Tew-3.0.JmE.CPQrm"@ipc> Message-id: <[log in to unmask]> Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Old-Return-Path: <miso!aol.com!TMEshelman> X-Mailing-List: <[log in to unmask]> archive/latest/2086 X-Loop: [log in to unmask] Precedence: list