Grant, In the "Old School" the belief was that even though solder solidifies in a few seconds, it reached its cure in about 150 hours. don't know what the new breed of solder experts and/or metallurgists say it is now. Pete -----Original Message----- From: Grant Emandien [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, August 19, 1999 8:18 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 ############################################################## ############################################################## 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 ##############################################################