Hi Susan,
While the official title of the TM is 'Thermal Stress' test, a solder float
test IS a thermal shock (T-shock) test.
In this context it may not be particularly important in practice, however
when full assemblies are subjected to thermal (temperature) excursions, there
is a hugh difference if you perform T-shock (causing transient warpages of
component/PCB stressing the solder joints in tension, which is not a loading
mode for real product, and starts at T-ramps of about larger than 30
C/minute) or T-cycles (at T-ramps of less than 20 C/minute, where shear
loading of the solder joints is dominant).
So, as far as I am concerned, why not call a 'spade' a 'spade.'

Werner Engelmaier

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