Rinse Water Temperature Control: 6 Checks for Cleaner Panels Rinse water temperature is the parameter that decides how much chemistry leaves the panel and how much stays on it. Cold water removes salts slowly, warm water dissolves and carries them away far more effectively, and water that is too hot…

Plating Tank Air Extraction: 5 Rules for Safe Mist Control Plating tank air extraction is a safety system and a process system at the same time. It removes the fine mist that forms above heated chemistry and also keeps that mist from settling on panels, racks and tank lips where…

AOI False Calls: Chasing the Cause, Not the Threshold False calls are the tax an automated optical inspection line pays for its sensitivity, and the usual response is to widen a tolerance until they stop. That response works in the short term and it is almost always the wrong one,…

Solder Mask Cure Oven Control: 6 Profile Checks for Full Cure The solder mask cure oven is where a printed mask becomes a permanent part of the board. Everything before it, the printing, the tack dry, the exposure and the development, prepares the film. The cure step crosslinks the resin…

Copper Foil Storage: 6 Rules That Protect Surface Quality Copper foil storage decides how a laminate bonds long before the press closes. Foil arrives with a treated surface that is engineered to grip resin, and that treatment degrades with moisture, heat and mechanical damage. A roll stored badly for a…

Panel Edge Trimming: 5 Rules for Clean, Damage-Free Edges Panel edge trimming looks like a simple cut, yet the edge it leaves influences everything that follows. A rough edge sheds copper slivers into the plating line, a burr traps chemistry in the rinse, and a delaminated edge shows up as…

Screen Tension Measurement: 5 Checks for Consistent Printing Screen tension measurement is one of the few printing parameters that can be checked in seconds and predicts print quality days in advance. A loose screen deflects when the squeegee passes, changes the contact line under the blade and releases less paste…

Press Platen Temperature Control: 6 Checks for Even Lamination Press platen temperature is the variable that decides how resin flows, how fast it gels and whether the panel that comes out matches the thickness and registration the customer ordered. Platen controllers can read perfectly while the board in the middle…

ESD Audit for PCB Assembly: What to Measure and Where An esd audit is a measurement exercise, and it fails when it turns into a paperwork exercise. The written program, the signs and the training records are necessary, but they do not protect a board. What protects the board is…

Electrical Test Fixture Design: Probe Pitch and Grid Density An electrical test fixture holds a bare board and presses a bed of probes onto its test points so that every net can be checked for continuity and isolation in a single pass. The fixture is where the electrical test either…