Hello, We have problems with manual soldering to gold plated components to a PCB (auxilliary connector pins and battery contacts). In approx 20% of the joints the bond between the solder and the gold plating is of unacceptable strength, with some having failed in service under small loads. The plating is gold over brass (pins) or berrilium copper (contacts). We are using a 63/37 tin lead solder at the moment. As far as I can see there is good wetting of the gold, and the serface of the solidified solder is fairly bright. I have an idea that there may be a brittle intermetallic being formed with the gold by either the tin or the lead. Does anybody know what the story is with Gold intermetallics?? What would be the solution to this? Will using a solder with 2% silver stop the intermetallic formation at all? Any information on soldering to Gold would be much appreciated. Regards Bruce Robertson Production Engineer Tait Electronics Ltd New Zealand ################################################################ 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 technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################