Inspection Lighting and Magnification Choices An inspector finds what the light shows and the magnification resolves. Both are equipment decisions, and both are usually made once and then left as they were installed, which is why a defect that is visible under one light becomes invisible under another. What the…

Defect Code: Defect Coding Scheme Design A defect coding scheme is the difference between data and a list. With a consistent structure, the codes support a pareto, a trend and a root cause analysis; without one, the records accumulate as free text that nobody can aggregate. The scheme does not…

Production Sample Retention Policy Sample retention is the practice of keeping a unit from a build so that a question asked months later can be answered by examining the product rather than by rebuilding it. It is inexpensive, it is frequently omitted and it is disproportionately valuable when a customer…

Pick and Place Machine Maintenance Schedule A placement machine is a set of mechanical axes, a set of feeders and a vision system, and each of them drifts. Maintenance is the schedule that keeps the drift inside the tolerance the placement accuracy depends on, and the schedule is set from…

Solder Joint Thermal Fatigue and Its Drivers A solder joint fails in thermal fatigue when the strain from a temperature change accumulates faster than the alloy can accommodate it. The drivers are the geometry, the materials and the cycle itself, and the four are usually examined together because the effect…

Line Stop Escalation and Recovery A line stop is a decision as much as an event. Continuing to build while a problem is unresolved produces suspect product that has to be sorted later; stopping the line loses output and may lose the shift. The framework that makes the decision consistent…

Surface Finish Thickness Measurement on PCB A surface finish is specified as a thickness because the thickness is what provides the protection during storage and what forms the joint during assembly. Measuring it is easy with the right instrument and misleading with the wrong one. What the Thickness Provides The…

PCB Oven Zone Limits: Where the Edges Are Electronics manufacturing has become a discipline of small details. Solder paste volumes, placement accuracy, temperature profiles and inspection limits all add up to the final result. This guide looks at PCB oven zone limits from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor,…

PCB Oven Zone Maintenance: Keeping It Working 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 oven zone maintenance gives you a practical advantage when you…

PCB Oven Zone Defects: What Goes 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 oven zone defects gives you a practical advantage when you…