Solder pastes have over 20 properties or tendencies that can influence SMT assembly quality. The subpar print and reflow performance was impacting quality and throughput, creating bottlenecks at print/SPI, at AOI and at rework areas.Ī quick substitution of another paste formulation from the same manufacturer demonstrated an instant print quality improvement, enough to justify the time and expense of a solder paste qualification. The incumbent did not exhibit best-in-class performance in printing or wetting. A review of existing SMT practices revealed an opportunity to improve quality and throughput by updating the solder paste chemistry used on the assembly lines. When a small EMS provider determined it was time to update its SMT process chemistry, it needed a test program it could execute efficiently, while keeping production running and costs under control. A consolidated test plan that gauges key solder paste properties and requires less than one shift of line time per product evaluated.

Quick test paste