Steve, This sounds like a job for ANSI J STD-002 category 1!!!! This is nothing more than a dip and look test to see if the component leads will take solder " as received " at your incoming. You are quite correct that if you don't have any board level soldering problems and you don't have any customer returns for poor solder joints, then you are probably ok and a cost increase may not be prudent. On the other hand, if you are having sporadic problems in either of these area's, you may want to consider the use of a category 2 or 3 requirement. What is the risk vs reward? What happens to your customer if there are solder joint/electrical failures on the product you sold to your customer in the field? If solder joint failure causes a toy malfunction, you may percieve the value of solderability test requirements differently than if a hard drive crashes or a CRT goes out or worse. Most quality suppliers will meet the category 3 8 hr steam age requirement, even on the plastic/commercial grade product and do not charge more for it. Now the supplier may charge more if you insist that they do the solderability test on samples from each lot they send you. Usually suppliers use a skip lot plan to monitor and guarantee the process is capable but that does not mean that your particulr lot will necessarily have a sample pulled and tested, although sometimes it will. I suspect that you are not talking to the right people at your existing supplier or else the persons you are talking to think you want to add a solderability test to their manufacturing flow. I think what you are looking for is to determine the level of capability your component suppliers exhibit with respect to solderability test performance. It seems to me a reasonable request to ask if a component supplier can meet category 1 or 2 or 3 of the ANSI J STD-002. This is just asking for what probably already exists in the lead finish manufacturing or QA records of the component supplier. This is not the same as asking the supplier to provide QA solderability test data for each lot you buy. I would be amazed if any supplier was producing and shipping components without some kind of idea on the solderability of the units being shipped. That would be like assembling components and not doing electrical test! Anyway, good luck. Regards, Mark Kwoka Harris Semiconductor ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: j-std-002 parts Author: [log in to unmask] at smtp Date: 2/19/97 1:09 AM HI, I'd like to inquire about the supply side market for commercial grade components that meet the requirements of IPC/J-STD-002 re. solderability Currently we do not specify any solderability spec for the purchase of our electronic components. We get many products that solder very well - both wave and hand with various fluxes(no clean - RMA - OA). Some parts are not so good - even mil spec. After talking with our major distributors it seems that the commercial grade parts that meet J-STD/IPC/Mil standards for solderability are not as available as straight commercial grade and will cost a bit more. They also said I would have to change part numbers - which would be a horrific task. Is this true or am I talking to the wrong suppliers? The second question is that given we do not appear to have a "problem" with most of our straight commercial grade parts, what gains could be made by sacrificing some cost and leadtime? No strong evidence exists that suggests a field performance / reliability concern. I can not see how I could justify "raising the bar", however many experts say that to change would be an improvement. Anyone have a practical philosophy on this dilemma that I can borrow? Steve Ross US&S *************************************************************************** * TechNet mail list is provided as a service by IPC using SmartList v3.05 * *************************************************************************** * To subscribe/unsubscribe send a message <to: [log in to unmask]> * * with <subject: subscribe/unsubscribe> and no text in the body. * *************************************************************************** * 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] * *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** * TechNet mail list is provided as a service by IPC using SmartList v3.05 * *************************************************************************** * To subscribe/unsubscribe send a message <to: [log in to unmask]> * * with <subject: subscribe/unsubscribe> and no text in the body. * *************************************************************************** * 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] * ***************************************************************************