(Giggle) I've been communicated to by a celebrity! (Seems that way anyway). The flux we use is HIGH activity, but you wouldn't believe all of the flux/solder combos we use. We have KESTER 450 NF, ALPHA 856, CLEANLINE NR205 PEN OR LIQUID, and ALPHA 611TO depending on the application. Jan Pelchat ___________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: [TN] Re[2]: [TN] Fab Solderability Test @ Assembly house Author: "Stephen R. Gregory" <[log in to unmask]> at 0UTG0ING Date: 9/23/98 11:49 AM In a message dated 9/23/98 7:24:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << Steve, Do you use this organic acid flux throughout the whole process? Reflow, wave, hand solder, etc? We have quite the opposite problem of most of your counterparts - we are PLAGUED with Customer directed board suppliers that constantly give us bad boards. Couple that with the parts that come from a zillion suppliers, and we have chronic opportunities for SOMETHING to come up with solderability problems. (We are a quite large contract manufacturer of PWAs) If we could go to a cure-all type flux, maybe I could spend a little more time doing PROACTIVE Quality Engineering instead of REACTIVE. Sigh - pipe dream, I know. Jan Pelchat>> Hi Jan! Customer directed fab houses huh? Figures....they don't have to deal with the issues that you do...you just give them good assemblies and they got their bare fabs for pennies...I feel for ya'! Yes I do use organic acid through out the process. The only time I use anything else is on third op stuff that can't go through the wash like transformers, piezo's, etc., and then I use no clean. That way I really don't have to worry that much about solderability, and when something along those lines does pop up (it's been with parts usually), it's not a questionable call,,,'cause if I'm not soldering with the flux I use, there's something most definitely wrong. I do have to keep after people about timely washing of the assemblies, you let them sit for anymore than an hour or two with the flux on em', it'll take the shine right out of the joints... Do you use low activity flux? -Steve Gregory- ################################################################ 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's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################ ################################################################ 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's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################