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...
Soldering
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 2: What Causes Them
Folks, Continuing our series on tin whiskers. In the last post we discussed what they are. in this post we will discuss what causes them. Tin whiske...
Matching a Reflow Profile to a Solder Paste Spec
Folks, Matching a reflow profile to a solder paste spec is a required skill for an SMT process engineer. In light of this, let’s do an exam...
SMT Assembly is an Optimization Process
Folks, SMT assembly is an optimization process. There is no single stencil printing process for all PWB designs. The stencil printing parameters of st...
The Miracle of Soldering
Folks, Imagine you are Guglielmo Marconi, and you opened the first radio factory in Chelmsford England in 1912. Using Lee De Forest’s 1906...
What Do the Equipment Suppliers Have to Say?
In this blog post, I share the reactions of soldering iron tip equipment suppliers to the statement: “As temperature increases, tip life de...
Stencil Aperture Design for the Pin in Paste (PIP) Process
Peter writes, Dear Dr. Ron, I am trying to implement the Pin-in-Paste (PIP) process. The PWB is 63 mils thick, the component pin diameter is 47 mils, ...
Zarrow and Hall's "Board Talk" Becomes a Book
Dr. Ron introduces a new book to help electronics assembly process engineers to troubleshoot everyday assembly defects and challenges. ...
Statistically Significant versus Practically Significant in SMT Data Collection
When comparing data with a large sample size, you may find that although the data shows that one sample is STATISTICALLY significantly better, it may ...
Reflow Oven Sizing Spreadsheet
Folks, A short time ago, I posted on how to size a reflow oven. I mentioned that I had developed an Excel Spreadsheet to perform the calculations. The...
Selecting a Reflow Oven Length
Should I purchase a 5-zone, 7-zone, or 10-zone oven to assemble some large boards for the new contract I just signed? Dr. Ron provides you with s...