To the Windy City and Back Again
This is an account of my trip to Indium’s Chicago facility. If you didn’t get a chance to read my previous post, the link is right he...
Solder Alloys
Soldering to Magnet Wires with 50In50Pb Alloy
The Indium Corporation recently had a customer contact us looking for 50In50Pb solder wire. We manufacture large amounts of this indium-lead mat...
SMTA International 2014 in Retrospect
The plane landed, I got my bags, and I drove home. What a great show. The SMTA International show took place September 28 to October 2 this year in Ro...
Low Temperature Solders Slated to Leave Niche Status by 2017
Folks, It surprises many people that the foundation metal of almost all solder alloys is tin. Alloy elements such as lead, silver, copper, indi...
Low-Temperature Solders: Important, Valuable
New developments are happening almost daily in the electronics device world: phones that do much more than just convey voice, clothing that monitors a...
Stencil Printing for Success: Solder Paste Handling and Storage
SMT Optimization for Success in Printing Ultrafine Solder Paste Deposits The SMT industry widely accepts that ~60% of solder defects occur at the ste...
Alloy Density Calculator Generates Most Interest of All Blog Posts
Folks, In the nearly ten years that I have been blogging, I am continually surprised by the interest in a spreadsheet I created that calculates alloy ...
Square Solder Wire - A New "Twist" on an Old Product?????
Round solder wire, especially flux-cored, has been a mainstay of the electronics industry ever since electronics came into existence. Round solde...
Does Lead-Free Assembly Use a Lot More Electricity and High Melt Lead-Free Solders?
Folks, An obvious disadvantage of lead-free assembly is that the oven must be hotter and therefore will use more electricity. But is the extra ...
Donuts and Solder Preforms – Seriously?
I just can’t get enough of a good thing. My last post mentioned donuts – one of my favorite treats. Allow me to continue reveling in...
Printer Process Set-up
Over the last few years, miniaturization, and the drive for increased yields and lower defect rates, have forced the electronics manufacturing industr...
Lack of Concern for Tin Pest as a Reliability Issue in Mission Critical Products Still Hard to Understand
Folks, My recent post on tin whiskers sparked the memory of tin pest in my mind. I have to admit, that with all of the legitimate reliability co...