Square vs. Circular Apertures and the Five Ball Rule Revisited
Folks, I recently posted that circular apertures deliver much less solder past than square apertures. One of the obvious reasons is that a circle of d...
Dr. Ron Lasky's Blog
Indium Corporation and SAFI-Tech Announce Partnership in Very Low Temperature Solders
Folks, Soldering is one of the oldest technologies developed by humankind, perhaps as long as 6,000 years ago. Early uses were in the making of jewelr...
The Importance of an Oxygen Barrier In Solder Paste Flux
Folks, Solder paste is arguably one of the most highly engineered materials. What is usually called solder paste “flux” is a combination o...
Excel Software Tool to Determine Mass Fractions in Binary Alloy
Folks, Recently, I posted a derivation of the equations to determine the mass fractions of two metals in a binary alloy. I thought it may be help...
How to Calculate the Metal Mass Fractions in a Two-Metal Alloy System
Folks, I was surprised to see the wrong formula for metal alloy density calculations on YouTube. The wrong (Eq. 1) and correct (Eq. 2) formulas ...
New Excel Software Tools to Practice for SMTA Certification #2: Reflow Profiling
Folks, In my last post, I shared about an Excel®-based software tool called Line Balancer™ to help candidates for SMTA Certification prepare...
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...
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...