Lead Free Solder Wick

Since that LF debacle is doomed for disaster anyway I wouldn't be surprised to see one on the market soon. Wouldn't that be something??

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Patrick,

My sardonic wit comes from 11 years of being an embattled process guy who�s basically �seen it all� in electronics manufacturing. I�ve been witness to the �Seagull Managers�, uneducated managers lacking credentials, managers with MBAs but couldn�t find their way out of a paper bag, the new Director or CEO from a totally different industry but he got hired because of being tall with nice hair and glasses, and desk jockey Engineers with the title �manufacturing or process� to their name, but yet have never touched equipment, solder paste or flux, and so-called �Quality Engineers� who make a living of pointing out defects and process problems. They do their �victory dance� when they find defects � God forbid ONE defect occur on an assembly with 40,000 opportunities � and then read Circuits Assembly and SMT Magazine and use the latest buzzwords like �RoHS, dendritic growth and tin whiskers�, who then theorize that the complanirity problem on your QFP160 is a result of dendritic growth caused by a tin whisker on a lead that wasn�t RoHS compliant. Then they generate charts and graphs of the defects, point out the obvious, and then ask yours truly, the process guy with a clue � �what are ya gonna do about it?� The CEO from the food industry without a clue finds out about the defect, panics, and yells at the Seagull Manger, who then over-reacts, calls a meeting with a �cross functional Tiger Team�, and asks everybody in the room, �How can we leverage our synergies to achieve our mission critical goal of Total Quality Management of our value-added processes (and you gotta pronounce it�process-SEEZ).� Basically all the type of people I mention above lack common sense. I met a guy from America who called these type of people �the 90%ers�, the theory being that only 10% of mankind has common sense.

These same non-common sense types are the ones who came up with this Lead-Free legislation, and for those who are knowledgeable, we all know that electronics waste comprises only what�. 0.5% of the total lead waste in our landfills�..but I must admit, it�s created jobs, financially benefited the equipment and material companies, and achieved a new breed of engineers on the fast track to management who never even knew how to troubleshoot regular Sn-Pb assemblies which�ve been around for decades! I�ve taken a few of these Lead-Free seminars and was amazed that some people haven�t even passed �Process Enineering 101.�

So yes, that�s a source of humor to me. Thanks for the complement though!

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