You should be able to use either option, I would also suggest you look at one of the clear soldermask repair products ( Chemtronics has soldermask pens in green and clear ) since your customer objects to the appearance of the repair, although such a small area should hardly be noticeable. Covering the copper with solder is usually my choice if I find the exposed copper while working on a board but for most of my assemblers soldermask repair is a safer option especially on a ground plane where the soldermask sometimes comes off because of the heat applied to fix the original problem! Charles Caswell Process Lead Printed Circuit Board Dept. Frontier Electronic Systems ____________________Reply Separator____________________ Subject: [TN] Soldermask off-rework options Author: MIME:[log in to unmask] Date: 4/14/99 7:54 PM Hello all, We are seeing some soldermask coming off the board during assembly which exposes the copper. The size is relatively small at about 20-mils square, the location about 40-mils from the edge, and located on a ground plane. We think we know what's causing it, but my question deals with rework. Two options have been presented: 1) Apply new soldermask and cure. Seems reasonable, but the customer doesn't like the appearance. 2) Apply solder and clean. There may be an issue with applying enough heat to get good wetting and too much heat resulting in damage, especially considering it's a ground plane. Anyone know of a specification issue why either option can't be done? Any experiences, good or bad? Thanks for all your help, today and in the past. Glenn [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com ################################################################ 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 ################################################################