Steve, How much variation? I was a under the impression that 106A was self limiting and that it was more of a manufacturing philosophy immersion vs. conveyorized. As a user of boards this is what I've always heard from the manufacturer. Evidently this might not be correct? Could you elaborate? Best Regards Corey Peterson "Stephen R. Gregory" <[log in to unmask]> on 02/26/99 06:10:06 PM Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum." <[log in to unmask]>; Please respond to [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] cc: (bcc: Corey A Peterson/Mequon/RA/Rockwell) Subject: Re: [TN] Entek 106A OSP In a message dated 2/26/99 12:21:53 PM Pacific Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << Debbie, There are several equipment manufacturers capable of building a conveyorized OSP line. Adam Pill(Germany, represented in this country by ECI), Eidshun Engineering and FSL, to mention a few. With respect to the pros and cons of immersion versus conveyorized, experience has shown that the uniformity of an OSP coating is improved by conveyorizing. Generally, the uniformity is a cosmetic thing, but important to some. If you have a high production load, conveyorized equipment should benefit from a productivity stand point. Regardless, OSP coatings are thin by nature, and obviously clear in appearance. In order to insure a cosmetically pleasing and robust coating(necessary to prevent oxidation of the copper surface) equipment design is very important. Best regards, Michael Carano>> Hi Debbie! Michael gave some good information, however, I'd like further amplify the importance of a uniform coating thickness, and one other reason a conveyerized process is better. In a water soluble environment where the use of fairly active fluxes is the norm, variances in coating probably won't give you much heartburn (unless it's too thin and goes away on the first reflow), but in the no-clean world where flux activity is pretty lame, I've heard of people having problems getting good joints because the flux doesn't have enough "ooomph" to get through the OSP and also clean the metals surfaces. I've also had the experience from a non-conveyerized shop where they've done the OSP coating first, then done the bed of nails test (which is bass- ackwards) merely because of the logistics that it takes to move the panels around...they kept things in the fab vendors panel size instead of the production assembly panels because of the number of them (it's easier to move one big panel than it is to move a bunch of smaller ones), and the bed of nails tester was set-up to do the larger panels. So I wound-up getting the panels with a nice divot in the OSP coating...it was a good thing we built those quickly because I don't think they would've done well sitting on the shelves for any length of time with a hole in the coating like that... -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 ################################################################