We are switching our surface mount boards from HASL to OSP. The one problem I see is there are several grounding areas ( .25" X 5" ) that have metal bars mounted on both sides of the board attached via screws through the bars and PCB. There needs to be good contact between the metal bars and the grounding areas. With a HASL board the is no oxidizing problem. If I paste the area, I am concerned with the solder pooling toward the center of the area and creating an uneven surface to mount the bars. My thought is to use vias on the grounding area to thieve the solder to prevent solder pooling! Has anyone tried this, and if so what size vias were used, ratio of vias to surface area, etc..? Does anyone have any other ideas? Thank you. Best Regards, Mike Forrester [log in to unmask] ################################################################ 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 ################################################################