Examination of the records of employees leaving an electronics factory over three-and-a-half years showed that a significantly greater proportion left the shop floor (where soldering took place) because of ill health than left the stores and office areas. This difference was largely due to work-related respiratory disease in those whose job was soldering. Shop floor workers leaving for health r...

The process cleaning rate theorem holds that the static rate (chemical forces) plus the dynamic cleaning rate (mechanical forces) equals the process cleaning rate. New lead-free flux residues result from more demanding soldering drivers created by high soldering temperature, surface tension effects, and miniaturization. Lead-Free flux compositions require thermal stability, resistance against b...

Objective(s) To determine the potential toxic effects of manual soldering flux cored solder wire on lung of the rat as an experimental model. Materials and Methods A total number of 48 adult male rats were divided into experimental (n= 30) and control (n= 18) groups. Based on exposure time to solder fume, each group was further subdivided into 2, 4 and 6 week subgroups. Rats of experimental ...

In the electronics manufacturing industry, soldering plays a key role in the process, whether it is carried out manually, semi-automatically or fully automatically. Even though the basic techniques in manual soldering are comparatively straightforward, to master it at a high level still requires a lot of time and effort. The research presented in this paper aims to identify the motor skills inv...

The reliability concerns regarding surface insulation resistance (SIR) and electrochemical migration (ECM) have been significantly raised in the printed circuit board (PCB) assembly with wide adoption of lead-free assembly materials and process. Moreover, the miniaturization trend of the electronic industry also increases the sensitivity of the functional assemblies to surface contamination and...

The objectives of this study were to establish the prevalence of respiratory, eye, nose and throat symptoms of likely work-relation in workers exposed to colophony solder flux fumes and to assess their lung function. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four medium-sized electronics firms in which control measures to capture solder flux fume were absent or visibly ineffective. All female so...

Although many have predicted the demise of through-hole components, they are alive and well with tens of billions assembled each year. In many cases these components are assembled by wave soldering. However, in many mixed product technology (i.e. SMT and through-hole on the same board) products, it makes sense to consider assembling the through-hole components with the pin-in-paste (PIP) proces...