Myths and beliefs in modern electronicassembly and soldering techniques – PART-1
21 February 2007Eddy Van den Wijngaerd, engineering consultant and IPC-certified trainer - 2/21/2007
I often wondered whether in today′s modern technology, myths and fairytales stillhave places at all. With the entire hullabaloo about fancy electronic design and analysis programsgetting more and more musical names by the day, who would give common soldering on the production floor much thought?Plain common soldering, whether by means of re-flowing, wave, hand soldering or intrusivesoldering, is often treated as the Cinderella of the assembly process in electronics.Many companies embarking on OEM or contract manufacturing realise the importance of havinga recognised standard to work to. Where the ISOs come in handy with respect to theadministration and organisation, they lack the technical detail of the end-product. Coming to theaid is one of the more well-known and universal standards like IPC. More about IPC later.In the absence of affordable, technically-superior adhesives, solder will remain the major interconnect medium between components and substrates like PCBs or alumina substrates. It isnot only amazing but basically frightening to see how many myths still exist and are beingworked with, in many reputable and sizeable companies.
What is a myth?
To avoid misunderstandings, ill-defined words and concepts, let us look at what a myth is, andsee if there are different sorts of myths. Myths are symbols that reflect a community's (electronicmanufacturers, inspection authorities, QA and end users) unspoken assumptions, beliefs andtheories of action:'Symbols embody a community's view (or theories) about particular phenomena, which in turnexplain behaviours exhibited by members of the community' (Frost & Morgan 1983).
'Symbolism revolves around shared meanings - patterns of beliefs, rituals and myths, whichevolve through time and function as social glue, binding communities together' (Smircich 1983).'Myths can also be defined as a dramatic narrative of imagined events, usually to explain originsor transformations of something. It also reflects an unquestioned belief about the practical benefits of certain techniques and behaviour that is not supported by demonstrated facts (Trice &Beyer 1984).'Myths are often communicated through the telling of a story. Myths are devices of mind thathave been used throughout time to provide explanations, reconcile contradictions, and helpresolve dilemmas. However, myths have also been known to distort images and misdirectattention (Bolman & Deal 1984).
Dry joint?
This last myth mentioned above pertains, in particular, to electronic soldering techniques and themost common myth is better known as 'the dry joint'. It in fact distorts images and misdirectsattention. The definition of 'dry joint' is nowhere to be found in the IPC-T-50G standard Terms
�
and definitions for Electronics. Where dry film can be found, the definition of a dry joint
�
excels in its absence.Maybe IPC made a slip-up and forgot about this very commonly used 'term'? IPC used to be better known some 10 years ago by the name: The Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging
�
Electronic Circuits. It is a large world-wide organisation with its base in the USA, but
�
stretches from Vladivostok to Los Angeles. Literally hundreds of companies with thousands of members communicate, exchange and standardise issues in the field of electronic assembly.Once consensus is reached with respect to a new process or terminology, it is taken up in their manuals and standards. There is no way the popular 'dry joint' could have been forgotten or overlooked. So what is the case? We have to accept the unthinkable: it is not defined and doesnot exist.Many operators, inspectors, trainees, engineers, CEOs, managers and others have been using itsince World War 2. It should have ended there and then but it did not. It lives on like a myth inelectronics. I have heard it everywhere in South Africa, being used by engineers, managers,directors of companies, operators and technicians. Worse, I have seen it once in a reputablecompany on their official inspectors' fault sheets. It read: PCB001xxx, 5 dry joints, at
� � �
R11, C23, IC2, TR3, and R3. How do we fix something that does not exist?
�
When confronted, the classical answer is: You know what we mean by dry joint. No, I am
� �
afraid not, and neither does IPC know. It is a deeply-entrenched myth that has almost become areality. The foregoing myth could be compared with the myth of Santa Claus or Father Christmas. Everybody talks about him, especially around Christmas time. His name is knownworldwide, some children even believe in him, yet he does not exist.
The 'dry joint' has been too long with us now and it has taken on ramifications. It is so deeplyentrenched that some engineers, technicians and operators even refuse to accept a trainer's wordthat it does not really exist. Is this problem endemic to South Africa? No, fortunately not. Butthis is small consolation and does not result in a positive feedback in the electronic assemblyindustry.Meaningful feedback is needed to correctly address the many problems in the soldering assemblyrealm. By starting off with incorrect definitions will not help solving the problem.A master trainer from a company previously known as 'The School of Soldering in Scotland, UK'told us the following story based on his worldwide travelling as an engineering consultant.Quote: "The most widely spread myth is the dry joint. The dry joint has plagued our industryfrom the early valve days, where valves were voltage switching in the hundreds of volts at verylow currents. The non-wetted solder connections give sufficient electrical contact for short periods and then rapidly degrade the signal performance of the circuit, commonly termed at thetime as: noise. Noise was closely associated to the phenomenon recognised at the time as the dry joint. It should be noted that these troublesome connections were constantly being revisited bythe soldering iron to reduce the circuit noise each time, giving shorter periods of operations.The remarkable thing is that this terminology is surviving in the environment of the modernmanufacturing facility. It is alive and well in the whole spectrum of companies, from the largestto the smallest. I have spent mesmerising days in some of the largest companies watchingoperators 'touch up' the mythical dry joints. The interesting thing when challenged was thediverse range of dry joints. There were dull ones, bright ones, gritty ones and plain old ones theoperators did not like!" Unquote.Does the above sound familiar in your company? I really hope not. But if it does, some basic andintermediate training would definitely be recommended. There are more myths and beliefs, somemore subtle like the non-wetting and de-wetting. I hope to elaborate on these in later articles.Finally, allow me to add one more experience I had last year with a reputable company in SouthAfrica. A technician surprised that after 20 years he had to deal with the non-existence of a dry joint was unwilling to change to the proper IPC standards and definitions relating to real hands-on problems in the assembly area. He fell back on his previous incorrectly-learnt dry joint sagawhen he was employed by another reputable SA car manufacturer. There they really pushed themyths further by giving flying reindeer to Santa Claus and came up with the DRY JOINT asfollows: D = Defective, R = repairable and Y stands for yield.This is absolute nonsense. It is high time we dedicate some time to proper training in thisindustry.
About the author:
Eddy Van den Wijngaerd, Pr.(Tech) Eng SA, Ind. Eng. (Belgium), CIT (IPC),has a 36-year background in the electronics industry and is currently a consulting engineer andIPC certified trainer for South Africa.
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
Myths and beliefs in modern electronic assembly and soldering techniques
This is an excellent article that highlights some key myths prevalent in Electronic Manufacturing Industry. The author, Eddy Van den Wijngaerd of South Africa exposes the ignorance of some seasoned soldering engineers when it comes to…
(More)
3.1K
Reads
4
Readcasts
0
Embed Views
More From This User
Notes
Load more
