| I realize it's been discussed many times before. I need to know your opinions, experience, and knowledge concerning "today's"/latest and best pallet designs, suppliers, and methods for using them more effectively.
Earl,
Pallets can be extremely useful in reducing soldering defects at the wave operation. This in turn increases first pass yield and reduces the amount of materials sent to repair. Pallets fully support the pcb and can eliminate or reduce tape and liquid mask usage and their related defects. A pallet will also act as a solder dam, allowing you to increase wave height without flooding the card.
Please keep in mind that a pallet can address many design/manufacturing issues; but custom pallets and their effectiveness can be design/layout dependent. This is especially true with high density cards.
Regarding materials: I have had the most experience w/ delamt and have received good perfromance from it. It has been in the market since the '90 or '91. Others have come along since then; glastic, attwater, roechling, durastone, and G-10. G-10 is acceptable only in proto or low run work since the material absorbs water and breaks down due to the heating cycles in the wave. cost wise the newer materials run any where from 2-5 times the cost of G-10. The cost difference is well worth the expense because the material life is significantly better.
Please feel free to contact me at 877-383-8665 if you have any other questions.
Chris
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