Grant, Sounds like you have a couple of 'opportunities' here. First as an old test person, I would suggest you make sure that your ICT folks are using the self cleaning probes on the fixture. With a reasonable amount of flux these probes will survive a lot longer than an normal probe. Second, it sounds like you may have an excess of flux?? Or maybe it is just the way I am interpreting what you are saying. Just take a look anyway. On the subject of cleaning, well there are a couple of things to look at here also. You could get a cleaner and add a process or you may want to look into no-clean flux for the process you already have. In my 'life' in production here we have moved to no-clean and when we started SM process we started out with no-clean. We evaluated the move up front, and have not had any issues to deal with once making the move, so I can say that from our standpoint, no-clean is a big plus. AND, our ICT folks have no complaints no matter how long the board takes to get to them. Good luck, and let me know if I can be of any more help. Richard Hamilton Clemar Mfg. / Rain Bird [log in to unmask] > -----Original Message----- > From: Grant Emandien [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Thursday, August 19, 1999 7:18 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [TN] Solder joint curing > > Hi all out there, > > What is the average period for a solder joint (reflow and wave) to 'cure'? > I > also state that I don't quite know what cure means in this instant - but > the > general problem we have is the minimum period (if there is such a thing!) > required for a solder joint to cure before introducing it to ICT under > reasonable conditions of stability. > > Our test guys are complaining that the assemblies reach there machines too > late (hours later), resulting in hardened flux which the test pins have > difficulty in penetrating, causing damaged pins, retesting and hence > unnecessary wear of the test fixtures and reduction in throughput. > Introducing the assemblies too early while the joints are still in > 'transition' may also result in retesting (true or false?). > > As you may have guessed, we don't clean boards as a norm however, this may > be the way to go in future as will be experimenting with a cleaner > shortly. > > Cheers > Grant > ############################################################## 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 ##############################################################