| March 27, 2013
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This is an example of a recent project where the solution was more reliable, less labor intensive and much more elegant that the alternative... dead bugging.
If you're not familiar with dead bugging it's when you need to add components to a circuit board and have no place to put them so you glue them upside-down and run jumper wires to complete the circuits. It's usually a big mess.
A military contractor had an engineering change to implement to a batch of circuit board that involves the addition of 16 components. The original solution was to dead-bug the components and adding 30 jumper wires to some lifted component leads and surface pads.
We were asked if we could improve upon the fix. As always the need was urgent and there was not the available time to re-spin the artwork and ...
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In the world of rework and repair there can never be a standard procedure for every emergency. Things can happen quickly, and there can be an urgent need to go above and beyond the recognized standards outlined in IPC and other industry guides.
These kinds of situations demand innovation, new processes. Through the years we've had many occasions to work closely with our customers and partners to create leading-edge solutions.
In this example we developed a procedure to repair large ground plane voids. We worked hand-in-hand with a customer who provided critical reliability data for the completed repair that confirmed the repair process was sound.
Several challenging and unique approaches were attempted before a final ...
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Rework departments often encounter large through-hole components on high-mass circuit boards, or components with heat sinks. The solder fountain machine is ideal for this type of rework. With the introduction of lead-free solders, the use of solder fountains has increased.
A solder fountain can transfer large amounts of heat to a specific area very quickly. A normally laborious and time-consuming procedure with a desoldering tool is completed quickly and with relative ease.
However, the strength of the solder fountain system is also its chief danger. Solder can overflow or spatter, which presents the possibility of serious injury. Safety is the primary concern when using one of these ...
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Trivia
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Quote of the Week
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