New Excel Software Tools to Practice for SMTA Certification #1: Line Balancing
Folks, I recently developed some Excel®-based software to help those who are planning to take the SMTA certification exam to practice. Software to...
Dr. Ron Lasky's Blog
The Pin-in-Paste Process with Donut-Shaped Preforms
Folks, some years ago I created a software tool, StencilCoach™, to calculate the stencil parameters to provide for an adequate amount of so...
Check Out Maggie Benson's Journey
Folks, Over ten years ago, I created the characters Patty and The Professor. The intent was to tell SMT assembly process improvement stories through t...
Interview with Intern Emily Dean
Folks, One of the great advantages of being a professor at Dartmouth College is working with the world’s best young students. However, Emily Dea...
Download a Free Copy of the Solder Defects Booklet
Folks, Chris Nash and I (supported by an army of Indium Corporation’s outstanding engineers) wrote a booklet on eliminating solder defects. The ...
Metals That "Melt" Other Metals
Folks, Gold is often used to protect other metals from corrosion. It so effectively resists corrosion that gold is plated over metals like copper when...
Why Square Apertures Provide More Solder Paste than Circular Apertures
Folks, When comparing the volume of solder paste provided by a circular versus square aperture, consider that if the side of the square is D and the d...
The Only Way to Demonstrate Zero Defects is to Sample All of the Product
Folks, Let’s look in on a graduate student of Ivy University…….. John Foster felt very fortunate. Not only did he get his undergra...
Join Me at SMTA's PanPac 2022 - January 31 to February 3
Folks, I will be presenting three papers at PanPac 2022. They are: 1. Low Melt High Remelt Solder Paste, co-authored with Claire Hotvedt of Indium Cor...
Using FMEA to Determine Your Tin Whisker Mitigation Strategy
Folks, In our last post, we discussed techniques to mitigate tin whiskers. To help determine what your tin whisker mitigation strategy should be, cons...
Tin Whiskers IV: Mitigation
Folks, In the last post on tin whiskers, we discussed detection. In this post, we will cover mitigation. Since compressive stresses are a primary caus...
Tin Whiskers 101: Part III: Detection
Folks, One of the great challenges of tin whiskers is detecting them. When one considers that their median thickness is in the 3 to 5 micron range (a...