Paul, Presuming you cannot find an alternative relay socket from another source with no holes, yes a temporary solder mask might work. There is some cause for concern because several of these are laced with ammonium hydroxide. Your best bet is to screen a few with a copper mirror test and then get someone like CSL to run a SIR/electromigration study for you, if the supplier doesn't have these kind of results or you want an independent third party result. regards, Bev Christian Nortel Networks -----Original Message----- From: Paul Wareham [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, February 18, 1999 7:13 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Sealing sockets prior to potting. We've got a real problem with one product where we use potting compound to encapsulate a PCB assembly. The PCB has a few relay sockets which have some openings at the bottom of the socket - not sealed. When we pour our potting compound into the unit, the potting creeps up the connection pins into the connector body itself which really fouls up our ability to plug in the relay. Getting the sockets sealed at the factory is not easy - big minimum order and very costly. We've tried a two stage potting procedure where we pot only part way until the potting reaches the level of the socket - then let it set, then pot the rest of the way. This works to some degree but with mixed results. We were thinking of sealing the bottom openings with a peelable solder mask (Alpha Solder Stop 110) but some here were conerned that this could adversly effect the tin plated brass pins on the socket or the solder joints themselves. Has anyone else ever run into a similar problem? Anyone think of anything to try in order to help this situation? ################################################################ 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 ################################################################