Reliability Matters

Episode 83: A Conversation about Solder Paste Inspection with Christopher Frederickson

Today, we’ll be discussing Fit for Use solder paste inspection. As I’ve repeated several times on this show, it is said most reliability problems begin at the printer. Our industry utilizes a lot of materials in order to produce a circuit assembly. If the materials, specifically the solder paste is out of spec, that can effect reliability. Unfortunately, in most cases, one can not simply open a jar of solder paste and easily determine visually if the solder paste their applying to the stencil is fit for use, or if it has gone bad, or is out of spec.

My guest today will discuss what solder paste fit for use means, and how we can provide methods for determining its fit for use right on the production floor. My guest also, on a completely unrelated topic, but maybe even more interesting, has experience in wearable electronics in temporary tattoos. You subject that’s the first question I’m going to ask him about!

Contact Christopher:

Christopher Frederickson
Chief Technology Officer
Insituware LLC
Email: [email protected]
Web: insituware.com

Miles Moreau is KIC’s General Manager, has been with KIC for nearly three decades. He draws his deep and rich expertise from managing multiple business units across four continents spanning operations, field service, and sales and marketing channels. His expertise is in thermal management and that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today.

We’ve discussed how to profile a board on this show. Today, we’re going to talk about profiling an oven and a wave soldering machine, and how, when done correctly, may reduce the number of times one has to attach thermocouples to a circuit board and run it through an oven or wave soldering machine.

Miles' Contact Information:
Miles Moreau
[email protected]
https://kicthermal.com

My guest today is Paul Salerno. Paul holds an MBA with specialization in finance and marketing from Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is the Global Portfolio Manager at MacDermid Alpha Electronic Solutions with expertise in product lifecycle management and development of strategic technology roadmaps for the global surface mount technology business. Paul works with customers in both Europe and Asia with customers in automotive, computing, communications and consumer electronic markets.

Paul and I discuss soldering materials including "high reliability" solder paste, low and ultra-low solder pastes, and design-for-use solder paste selection processes.

Paul may be reached here:
Paul Salerno
Portfolio Manager, SMT
Assembly Solutions
[email protected]

On this episode, I spoke with IPC's Chief Technologist Matt Kelly and IPC Technical Program Co-Chairs Stan Rak (SF Rak Company) and Bev Christian (HDP User Group) about the upcoming IPC APEX Expo 2022 live technical conference.

We discuss the following topics:
• IPC's "Factory of the Future Pavilion"
• IPC's 3-Hour Professional Development Courses (31 courses!)
• IPC's Technical Program (4 technology tracks each with 29 technical presentations.
• IPC's Poster Sessions

IPC APEX Expo 2022 takes place January 22-27 in San Diego, CA.
More information is available here:
IPC APEX Expo 2022
https://www.ipcapexexpo.org/

Professional Development Course information is available here:
https://tinyurl.com/uzwwe49b

Technical Conference info is available here:
https://tinyurl.com/2bpcxpzp

My guests Cheryl Tulkoff (She/Her) and Greg Caswell discuss their new book "Design for Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing" (published by Wiley and available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Wiley).

Cheryl and Greg are giving away a free copy of their new book (a $130 value)! Listen or watch this episode to learn how to win their informative book.

Book details:
DESIGN FOR EXCELLENCE IN ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING
An authoritative guide to optimizing design for manufacturability and reliability from a team of experts Design for Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art book that covers design and reliability of electronics. The authors—noted experts on the topic—explain how using the DfX concepts of design for reliability, design for manufacturability, design for environment, design for testability, and more, reduce research and development costs and decrease time to market and allow companies to confidently issue warranty coverage.

By employing the concepts outlined in Design for Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing, engineers and managers can increase customer satisfaction, market share, and long-term profits. In addition, the authors describe the best practices regarding product design and show how the practices can be adapted for different manufacturing processes, suppliers, use environments, and reliability expectations. This important book contains a comprehensive review of the design and reliability of electronics covers a range of topics: establishing a reliability program, design for the use environment, design for manufacturability, and more. Includes technical information on electronic packaging, discrete components, and assembly processes shows how aspects of electronics can fail under different environmental stresses.

Written for reliability engineers, electronics engineers, design engineers, component engineers, and others, Design for Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing is a comprehensive book that reveals how to get product design right the first time.

I spoke with Dave Trail from Arch Systems about Industry 4.0.

Dave may be reached here:
mailto:[email protected]
808-868-8298

SMTA's Surface Mount Technology International is back as a live event! The team behind the show and conference discuss the various activities taking place at SMTAI including the exhibition floor, professional development courses, technical presentations, special events and more.

SMTAI 2021 takes place November 1-4 in Minneapolis, MN. More information and registration is available here:
https://smta.org/mpage/smtai/

My guest has been quoted saying his personal mission is to make industry a profitable place; where individuals and manufacturers possess the resources, knowledge, and courage to sustainably lower their operating costs. I speak with James about his maintenance philosophies and his work teaching maintenance best practices.

James may be reached here:
James Kovacevic, MMP CMRP CAMA
[email protected]
https://eruditiollc.com

A conversation with media personalities Mike Buetow (Circuits Assembly Magazine), Trevor Galbraith (Global SMT & Packaging), Phil Stoten (Scoop TV), and Eric Miscoll (EMC Now). During our conversation we covered various topics including post pandemic production, innovations within our industry, supply chain and labor shortages, and more.

My guests may be reached here:
Mike Buetow
[email protected]

Trevor Galbraith
[email protected]

Phil Stoten
[email protected]

Eric Miscoll
[email protected]

Episode 75: Matric Group's Patrick Stimpert on Lean Manufacturing with a "Lean-In" Philosophy

EMS provider Matric Group's Patrick Stimpert incorporated the Toyota Production System’s Lean principles into his contract manufacturing business. Patrick states “Results are Important. How do I get my results? With the use of the Toyota Production System’s Lean principles and my simple rule “don’t waste time rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, go fix the problem”. I believe in the "LEAN-IN" processes and gain improvements through RIPs (Rapid Improvement Projects) These projects are based on a standard of identifying problems, brainstorming solutions, attempting those solutions, and adjusting from there. “If we are going to fail, we are going to fail fast and cheap.”

Matric Group
https://www.matric.com