------Resist Trial Update--------- Just one resist supplier has asked to be involved with the solder balling trials so far: -----Morton International------- There are many more that suppliers of resist systems who may like to participate in the trials so lets hear from you !!! Basically the plan is to evaluate the different masks one one soldering system with both air and nitrogen. The soldering system will be using one flux and a spray application. There would be two waves contacting the board surface and all process parameters would be the same for the test apart from the nitrogen setting. A number of sample board would be provided from each supplier based on the gerba file provided and the boards would be copper OSP finish with solder resist. The supplier or printed board fabricator would provide all process parameters, cure rates etc for reference. The sample boards would be passed through the soldering system and then the solder balls will be counted between specific test points of the board. The assessment of the ball count would be done by a third party. Any further contributions to the test plan are valued provided that it does not increase my work load as this is my SMART Group charity work not my real work. The story so far: As we all know there are problems with solder balling on solder resist during wave soldering in both air and nitrogen. Today many suppliers of masks state that they will be solder ball FREE resists !!!!!! Well its time to do the first real production trial via Technet and SMART E LINK. SMART is Europe's Largest Electronics Trade Association. Like other trials conducted by the SMART Group the information will be freely available to any engineers for future reference and should be of particular interest to printed board fabricators. I have a solder balling test pattern for any solder mask suppliers who would like to have a Free evaluation of there mask under standard wave soldering conditions. Well its over to the solder mask suppliers lets see what is the best solder resist on the market and are ball FREE resist available. All the test results of this trial will be provided on Technet for other engineers to consider. The IPC criteria will be used as a reference for acceptability and be assessed by members of the SMART Group. Bob Willis Honorary Vice President SMART Group Process Engineering Consultant Electronic Presentation Services 2 Fourth Avenue, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 4HA. England. Tel: (44) 01245 351502 Fax: (44) 01245 496123 Home Page: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bwillis Email: [log in to unmask] *************************************************************************** * TechNet mail list is provided as a service by IPC using SmartList v3.05 * *************************************************************************** * To unsubscribe from this list at any time, send a message to: * * [log in to unmask] with <subject: unsubscribe> and no text. * *************************************************************************** * If you are having a problem with the IPC TechNet forum please contact * * Dmitriy Sklyar at 847-509-9700 ext. 311 or email at [log in to unmask] * ***************************************************************************