FCT Assembly was created in April 2004 after the purchase of Fine Line Stencil, Inc. and consists of two basic operations: stencil manufacturing and the manufacture of electronic assembly products such as solder paste, solder flux and solder (both conventional 63/37 and lead free) bar. The assembly products are manufactured in the Greeley, Colorado plant and the stencils are manufactured in the Colorado Springs, Colorado, Melbourne, Florida, and our Beaverton, Oregon facilities. The stencils can be fabricated by both laser cutting and chemical etch. Additional details of our stencil operation can be obtained by going to our stencil operation web site at www.finelinestencil.com
One of the more exciting changes in the electronic assembly industry is to move towards lead free soldering. A majority of lead free solder paste users in North America have settled on the so-called SAC alloys. This alloy consists of Tin (Sn), Silver (Ag) and Copper (Cu). FCT Assembly provides the solder paste flux vehicles that are compatible with this and other lead free solder paste alloys. In wave soldering, the industry is roughly divided into two lead free solder alloys:
- Sn-Cu alloys such as the Nihon Superior SN100C alloy
- SAC alloy as discussed above.
FCT Assembly is a licensee for the Nihon Superior SN100 lead free solder products for North America and Brazil. A licensing agreement has enabled FCT Assembly to manufacture the Nihon Superior SN100C lead free solder in North America, including Canada, United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.
The advantages of SN100C over the SAC alloys are numerous and include:
- Lower raw material cost as a result of no Silver.
- Less drossing with respect to both 63/37 solder bar and SAC bar.
- uch slower copper erosion in the copper plated thru holes and
- Much less attack on the stainless steel solder pots versus the SAC alloys.
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