In a message dated 98-03-30 05:25:28 EST, [log in to unmask] writes: << But why should we accept this demarkation line? Let's not lower our standards just for TIs convienience. Has anybody done any metalurgical research into this?>> Boy! SOMEBODY must've not had a good weekend! (GRIN) Just joshin'...I honestly don't think I've lowered my standards, I just understand that palladium is a different material than a tin/lead plating is, and it is going to have an affect on how the solder joint appears...it's not going to look the same, no doubt about it. Unfortunately I suppose, I've never had the luxury of having the resources of a full-blown failure analysis lab, or the time to conduct a study. But, I have done some what might be considered "un-scientific" tests. One test I've done that convinced me that there is a good metallurgical bond, is to pull on a component with a pair of needle-nosed pliers until the pads and traces rip out of the laminate before the solder joint would fail. Yeah I know, I didn't put a strain gage whose accuracy is down to the hundreth of a gram on everything while I was ripping the part up, but I know what I saw...and that was good enough for me. I think there's a lot of people out there in the same position that I've been in, employed at a contract assembly company working without a lot of time and/or lab equipment, that has to get product built and out the door in a certain amount of time. I will say that TI was pretty quiet about everything when they first started to use palladium, which I don't think was very helpful when I first ran across the differences in the solder joint appearance. I, just like everybody else did, thought there was something wrong. But since that time I've learned to adjust to the slightly different appearance that certain aspects of a solder joint has with a palladium coated lead. As far as having to accept it, I really don't mind. If any company can come up with different processes and methods to build something easier and cheaper, that still gives me something that will perform to specification within it's intended lifespan, then good for them! It is the small incremental changes in materials and processees that have helped prices for 200mhz Pentium computer systems drop below $1,000. I'm not saying that TI, or palladium causes cheap computers, it's just that you seem so hung up on the solder joint appearance being different from the way "they used to look". May I pose a question to you? Do you have any evidence of palladium coated leads causing premature failures? I'm open to any inputs you may have... -Steve Gregory- P.S. I DON'T work for Texas Intruments, have stock in a palladium mining company, or work for Electrovert...I'm just a process engineer... ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information. For the technical support contact Dmitriy Sklyar at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.311 ################################################################