Lead-Free Testing
There is a good deal of misinformation regarding the Solderability test method that needs to be appreciated and, as so aptly described by Dave Hillman, Chairman of IPC-J-STD 002 and 003:
“The JSTD-002/003 solderability test standard's purpose is to test the robustness of a finish for wettability. Too many people attempt to use and/or believe that the standards are designed to mimic production conditions, they are not. This would be ‘soldering-ability’ not “solderability”.
Although the IPC committee has attempted to have the standards reflect soldering-ability concerns, it is not possible or practical in terms of testing methodology to mimic production. There are so many flux/process combination that the standards would cease to be of value; they would be huge and contain a multitude of variations.
The test parameters contained in the standards are designed to have some safety margin in terms of demonstrating the solderability of a surface - a test which gives either a false positive or false negative result is not of value to the industry.”
Good metrology practice and the function of these measurement standards, is to provide a common basis whereby the same results may be obtained from different testing locations.
This paper sets out some of the issues arising from Solderability Testing especially in regard to Lead-Free.
