Hot Air Rework Profiles For SMT Assemblies Rework is the removal and replacement of a single component on an assembled board, and a hot air rework station is the tool used for most surface mount parts. The station applies heated air to the component and its joints, melts the solder…

Stencil Cleaning Frequency and Methods on SMT Lines A stencil is the tool that defines every solder joint on a board, and it is also the part of the process that is cleaned least often in proportion to its importance. Paste left in an aperture changes the volume of the…

Production Reporting Metrics for a PCB Shop Production reporting is the practice of putting a small number of numbers in front of the people who can change them, often enough that the numbers influence what they do next. Most shops report too much and review too rarely, which produces a…

PCB AOI Improvement: Design, Process, and Quality Notes 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 AOI improvement from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor, covering…

Connector Plating Selection For PCB Headers The plating on a board mounted connector is a separable contact surface rather than a soldered joint. It has to conduct a signal or a current through a mechanical interface that may be mated once or thousands of times, and it has to keep…

Power Plane Copper Thickness and Current Capacity on PCBs A power plane is a sheet of copper that distributes current across a board, and its thickness is the parameter that decides how much current it can carry before it becomes too hot or drops too much voltage. Designers often choose…

PCB AOI Traceability: Design and Assembly Considerations Modern electronics depend on boards that are assembled correctly the first time. Every product – a phone, a charger, a medical instrument or an industrial controller – relies on thousands of solder joints that must conduct current for years. This article explains PCB…

PCB AOI Sample: Checking a Small Piece: Process Details and Inspection Points Modern electronics depend on boards that are assembled correctly the first time. Every product – a phone, a charger, a medical instrument or an industrial controller – relies on thousands of solder joints that must conduct current for…

PCB AOI Environment: Process Details and Inspection Points Modern electronics depend on boards that are assembled correctly the first time. Every product – a phone, a charger, a medical instrument or an industrial controller – relies on thousands of solder joints that must conduct current for years. This article explains…

Board Coplanarity For Connector Mounting Coplanarity is the property of a set of features lying in the same plane. For a fine pitch connector it describes how closely the solder tails or the pads of the connector lie in one plane relative to the board surface, and it decides whether…