Jaquelyn, We use all of the IPC standards as our incoming inspection criteria, but according to the people in our purchasing department these are bunk standards and tell you nothing. I fully understand that purchasing needs data to support our claims, which I thought failing solderability testing per the J-STD-003 by two independant labs would be sufficient. I will continue to get cross section reports done to show that the typical wetting issue can be masked with solder, but the issue is still there, just buried under the solder. If the pad is not wettable there is no way you will ever acheive a good intermetallic bond between the lead, the solder, and the pad interface. As a side note here -- I do consulting for a company which services ultra sound equipment. I am setting up a rework/repair department. I have been trouble shooting boards for him down to the component level. I have reworked over 50 boards so far. I have not replaced one component yet. I have simply touched up solder joints, and everyone of them have signs of dewetting exactly like the solder joints that were created on the boards that we are having dewetting issues on. These boards see about 25 to 110 degrees celceuis temperature fluctuation, which is not that far off from what our product would see. These boards were only 3 years old before the solder joints started to fail. Conclusion, just because you think it looks okay and it passes tests doesn't always mean you have a quality solder joint connection. Thanks, Kathy Palumbo Sr. Mfg. Engr. Viking Components, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Jebens, Jaquelyn [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 12:54 PM To: 'TechNet E-Mail Forum.'; 'Kathy Palumbo' Subject: RE: [TN] Dewetting Issues Kathy, What are your incoming inspection criteria for rejecting boards for de-wetting Or other solderability issues? I use one of the same board houses you do, And just recently my incoming inspection has rejected boards for solderability And/or poor wetting. My incoming inspection has explained to me that this Is just a visual inspection, and with their vast knowledge, they can just "see" The problem. As a buyer, it is very hard to return product without some kind Of evidence that there really is a problem. Jackie Jebens Purchasing Manager GoldenRAM -----Original Message----- From: Kathy Palumbo [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 12:45 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Dewetting Issues FYI They (purchasing) did not believe the solderability testing so they had us build up boards anyway. When the boards passed test they said there was no problem with the boards. We all know this is not accurrate, because if you put enough solder down you can mask off just about any dewetting problem out there. Believe me I have already pondered the worse case senerio! Regards, Kathy Palumbo -----Original Message----- From: Franklin [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 12:20 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Dewetting Issues Kathy, Why would you be concerned with 'long term solderability' issues when you have this initial solderability condition to deal with? Seems to me the argument should be the 'here and now', and not the 'what if'. All I know about reliability studies are those I have first hand experience with, and that being as I wrote above, if they fail from the beginning, they will not get any better sitting on a shelf. <smile> Something to ponder. Franklin D Asbell, CQA Network Circuits, Inc. 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If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ############################################################## ############################################################## TechNet Mail List 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 web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ##############################################################