SMTnet.com Electronics Manufacturing Forum

Assemby of flexible printed circuits

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:40:56 GMT

Hi Guys, I´m looking for information about processing smt components on flexible printed circuits (printing, SMD assembly,reflow soldering and laser cuting). These flexible circuits comes from a roll of 300 mm width. I found some information about roll-to-roll process, but i think this system is not suitable with populated components. Any help about this subjet will be very appreciated. Thanks.

Dross eliminator?

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:44:25 GMT

We just got a wave solder machine and we are using Sn100. I am new to the wave process. I see a product called "Super Deox Dross Reducer". Is this something we should be using? Is there a downside? Better alternatives? Thanks!

Auto stencil printer or AOI

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:53:26 GMT

Hi Guys, I need some help. I was running prototyping volume previous and my SMT line uses manual printing. Business has picked up and i started to get higher volume 300 to 500 pcs each model. I am running a small firm and have only a small sum of cash to only allow me to purchase either a auto printer or an AOI. Which one should i purchase? Manual printing of fine pitch ICs are giving me a lot of problems and manual inspection of assemblies is not reliable. Thanks

Issues with getting notifications to posts

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:38:16 GMT

For some reason I no longer get e-mail notifications to forum post responses. I tried to e-mail SMTnet but when I click send, it tells my e-mail address is not valid.

Improving PTH fill using select solder

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:36:58 GMT

I am a user of an Ersa Versaflow 3/45. I was wondering if anyone could share some process pointers. I have a 0.125" multilayer PCB that I am having problems consistently achieving 75 percent hole fill on a mini-coax connector. The coax connector has four pins that are 26 mils in diameter and a center pin that is 15 mils in diameter. The board has four layers of 2 ounce copper and it is a very efficient heat sink. Initially started with our regular flux and a topside temp of 95C and a solder time of 6 seconds. Found by trial and error that we needed to increase the topside preheat temp up to 150 C to help with PTH fill. This caused us to change to a hand brushed Tacflux since it could withstand these preheat temperatures. We also increase the solder dwell from 6 yto 10 seconds. That has helped the yield but we still get about 25% of the small center pins as not having enough solder. What is strange is that you can see the gold on the center pin while the four outer pins are all soldered and exhibit good wetting and solder fill.

CP6 and CP65: What's the largest part they can place?

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:24:28 GMT

Hi all, What the largest part I can place with these machines? I'm going to try to install a PLCC68 using the front light because the part is bigger than the backdisk and I want to make sure it can handle it. The part is about 30mmx30mm. Thanks

GSM 2 Spindle

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:41:22 GMT

All Professional, I've a GSM 2 flex head (2 beams). Beam 1, spindle 1 and 2 is disable right now. Spindle is not changing nozzle right now. How hard is it to replace the spindle? Does it involve calibration, and can anyone provide me with instruction. Thank you all. Mark

63/37 Solder Paste mix

Sun, 13 May 2012 02:08:26 GMT

We are having a lot of tomb stoning with this no clean solder paste. It's limited to larger, complex boards, affecting 0603 ferrite beads, capacitors and SOT23s. It was suggested that paste removed from a stencil should not be put back in it's original jar, mixing it with the new paste. Would love some input on this.

exportng OrCAD Layout spreadsheet or automatic assembly

Sat, 12 May 2012 12:30:04 GMT

Hello guys, I hope this thread is located properly! I have few designs made in OrCAD Layout and I need to switch them to automatic assembly but I've been told that I need pick and place files for them ... hence my request for you: How can I export those pick and place files from my OrCAD Layout design in an Excel table that must contain: Nr. Crt, X/Y position, rotation, Package type and part's serial number. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Lucian

Underscreen cleaning cycles

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:54:38 GMT

I was just wondering what everyone is using for a standard cleaning cycle on their screen printers? I'm sure there a study that I can do on printing but don't have the time currently. Please let me know what everyone is doing as a standard practice. Thanks

Entry-Level Essemtec + BGA?

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:15:03 GMT

Greetings! I run a small CM company in the Midwest. We built our business on THT production for the boutique music products industry and are currently planning our launch of a low-volume/high-mix SMT line to support the growth of our business. Our goal is to pay around $120K for the entire line, stencil through reflow. From what I've read in the forums, buying new is recommended in order to establish the supplier relationship and gain training and support. At our price-point, however, Manncorp and Essemtec seem to be the only options. Here's the trick: our first project out of the gate will require us to precisely place a 324-pin 0.80mm BGA, a 3mm x 3mm LGA, and passives down to 0201; I expect more of the same in the future. Super-fast throughput is not a requirement for us. Quality of the finished product is, along with easy setup and change-over, training and support. Does the Essemtec Pantera or FLX2011, or the Manncorp MC series have what it takes to do the job for us? Any other recommendations? Thanks in advance...

Looking for an afordable solder fountain

Fri, 11 May 2012 07:27:58 GMT

We're a small company looking to purchase a desktop solder fountain. The only ones I've seen have been $4,500+. Anyone know of anything more affordable?

Conformal Coating Issues

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:43:47 GMT

I had send my coating board to the test lab for adhesion coating test. 3 times send, the result 3times fail. The coating chemical use is Humiseal 1B31. The process is clean the boards at washing process use the Vigon A200 saponifier mix with DI water, Test the cleanlines of teh boards with Omega meter, Result pass, then kept the board at baking for 6 hour with temp 85 degC, finish that then coating the boards use the PVA coating machine with humiseal 1B31 coating material. cure the boards with PVA curing machine. Upon finish that process the I send teh boards to the 3rd part test lab on the adhesion coating test. the result come out from the test labs is all my boards was fail and the coating was peel off. Any one knowing what's teh problem to my process ? and how to solve it ?

Coating Thickness Measurement Equipment

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:30:42 GMT

HI SMT Forum, Right now I am looking for the equipment to measure of my coating thickness that apply to the PCBA process. my chemical type is use acrylic and polyurethane type. If any one of the forum knowing about that, I would like to have on your recommendation.

Smt parts in strips

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:57:03 GMT

Our company has recently changed the way our cage gives our SMT Department their parts to try to better control inventory. SMT now instead of recieving reels recieves strips with only 2-20 extra parts depending and the size/cost of the part. Does anyone have ANY ideas on how we can decrease the problem of the strips jamming the feeders(while loading and while running)and, short parts(machine and setup waste)? We have Samsung and Mydata machines, any help with one or both would be greatly appreciated!

terst

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:32:31 GMT

where to buy IC tubes

Wed, 09 May 2012 19:11:04 GMT

We buy TSSOPs from Digikey, but the tubes they come in are too short for our PNP machine. I'm trying to buy just a handful of these IC tubes. These say 26020129 TSSOP 4.4 0949 on them. We'd like about 20". Can anyone help?

BGA Alignment

Wed, 09 May 2012 13:19:53 GMT

We use a small surface mount connector that has two alignment pins to ensure proper alignment. It works fairly well. I'm thinking that this simple alignment solution might work well with lead less parts like a BGA or QFN. I can hand assemble QFNs fairly well but getting proper alignment can be a challenge. A couple of alignment pins on the part and a couple of alignment holes in the PCB cell would make alignment easier.

Need Help with flashing the static RAM of CM95R-M

Wed, 09 May 2012 11:59:50 GMT

Our Panasonic KME Create CM95R-M pick and place machine was in storage for a long time and the system battery died, so now the static RAM is corrupted. We need to obtain a "key" floppy to reflash the static RAM. Thank you in advance for any advice and/or leads.

Quad QSV-1 error msg

Wed, 09 May 2012 08:48:51 GMT

Hello guys, I have a error message in a QSV-1 machine, when it tuns on "File archive error occurred while reading header of table top:permanent table top", I have no experience with this machine, so no good so far, already escalated to service and waiting for a response, our thecnical expert is unavailable so I hope some one of you can provide me with any idea of how to repair it. Win 98, no recently upgadre or any other change, same placement program as last week, no major maintenance on previous days. Not many Quad machines in my area, so not many experts arround... :( Thanks for your inputs!

Machine AOI

Wed, 09 May 2012 05:54:51 GMT

Hello, We're looking for a AOI machine, especially for pre reflow inspection but which is also usable for post reflow. Our priority is image quality inspection and not the rate of inspection. What is your feeling/advise about MIRTEC, OMRON, VI technology, GOEPEL and VISCOM ? Thank in advance, Thomas.

pva help

Wed, 09 May 2012 04:50:07 GMT

morning every one i have a problem with my pva machine. i get an error " power check fail" it does this when you try to run any program

Flux Cleaner

Tue, 08 May 2012 16:36:41 GMT

has anybody have any experience with this eco-friendly stuff? http://www.fluxcleaner.com/category/1-flux-cleaner.aspx and are there any others that are better? and just general flux cleaner discussion Regards

SMD component 7918

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:07:07 GMT

Hi..I need help again.. I need negative 18 volt linier voltage regulation, but after I search for a while, all of the components with this spec is obsolete, an the only exixting component is the through hole one.. Can you show me where I could find and buy 7918 smd component???? Help me please...

How to define solder paste printing tolerance

Mon, 07 May 2012 16:07:05 GMT

Hi, I need one clarification about solder paste printing height tolerance. How to define and fix the solder paste height tolerance after screen printing for inspection purpose. Currently we are using 5mils thickness of stencil, in that we are gave tolerance as 4 to 7mils. Please help to provide the exact tolerance for the above. And also please let me know, Is there any specification given in IPC Std. Thanks & regards, Saju.A