Solder Icicle Defects: 5 Causes in Wave Soldering A solder icicle is a tapered spike of solder hanging from a joint after it has left the wave, and it forms when the alloy solidifies while it is still draining. The joint itself may be perfectly good. The spike is a…

Solder Paste Refrigeration: 6 Rules for Cold Storage and Thaw Solder paste refrigeration slows the reactions that thicken the flux vehicle and oxidise the powder surface. A jar held between 2 and 10 degrees Celsius keeps its printing behaviour for months, while the same jar left on a shelf at…

Squeegee Durometer: Matching Blade Hardness to Paste Squeegee durometer is the Shore A hardness of the blade that pushes paste across the stencil, and it governs how that load reaches the apertures. A soft blade wraps around the paste and the foil and spreads its force over a longer arc.…

Hot Air Solder Leveling: 7 Controls for Flat, Even Pads Hot air solder leveling coats every exposed pad with solder and then blows the excess off with a knife of hot air, leaving a thin, solderable layer and clear holes. It is one of the oldest finishes still in volume…

PCB Vacuum Packaging: 6 Steps That Stop Moisture Uptake Vacuum packaging is the last manufacturing step a bare board sees, and it decides whether the panel arriving at the assembly line is as solderable as the one that left final inspection. Its job is to keep moisture, oxygen and mechanical…

PCB Cycle Time Risks: What Could Go Wrong Buyers and engineers often focus on the finished product and forget the production line behind it. In practice, most field failures can be traced back to process decisions made during assembly. Understanding PCB cycle time risks gives you a practical advantage when…

Vapor Phase Soldering: 7 Process Controls for Even Heat Vapor phase soldering heats a board by condensing a hot fluorinated fluid onto it. The fluid boils at a fixed temperature, the vapour carries latent heat, and the board surface stays at that boiling point until the solder melts. Because heat…

Solder Powder: 6 Particle Size Rules for Fine Pitch Solder powder is the metal fraction of a solder paste, and its size distribution is described by a type number that runs from type 3 down to type 7. The finer the powder, the smaller the aperture it can fill, and…

Solder Paste Roll Diameter: 5 Rules for Stable Printing Solder paste roll is the cylinder of paste that the squeegee pushes ahead of itself on every print stroke. Its size, its shape and the way it breaks up over the apertures decide how much paste enters each opening, so the…

Foreign Object Debris: 6 FOD Controls for PCB Assembly Lines Foreign object debris is any loose material on a board that should not be there, and it is one of the few assembly defects that can pass every electrical test and still fail in the field. A fragment of cover…