Toni - A good portion of the US electronics industry is currently working to ANSI/J-STD-001B and its ancillaries. This document gives a guideline for 230-290C for solder bath operating temperatures. The 215C that you mention would seem quite low for most soldering processes using Sn60, Sn62 or Sn63 solder, unless in a vapor phase system. Determination of actual soldering temperatures is generally made by the Manufacturing/Process Engineer responsible for the product. This will involve development of a preheat profile which ramps up to a temperature to trigger the flux activators and elevate the product temperature sufficiently to avoid thermal shock to its components. In many cases, parts manufacturers will provide time and temperature limitations for their parts. This data also has to be factored into the profile. The most successful profile is often the one that does the soldering job in the least amount of time. Profiles which dwell too long at lower temperatures can result in damage to boards and components. Regards - Kelly ################################################################ 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 ################################################################