April 2014

Newsletters

April 2014

Dear Electronics Colleague:

While it has been a prolonged winter in the Midwest, you can choose to embrace it or curse it. In keeping with the former, I recently had the chance to play a blue blood racquet sport outdoors called paddle ball. Think of tennis meeting table tennis outdoors in the fresh air. It was loads of fun! Pickleball was recently featured on NBC here. Anyone have game?

Our April 3rd X-Ray Workshop

was sold out with lots of great questions from the attendees as well as some "can you do this?" Boards were brought along to make it a highly interactive session. Thanks again to industry experts on x-ray, Bob Klenke and Ken Gribble. There are a couple of new developments in the IPC training world. Take a look at some of the other articles in this newsletter.

Looking forward to ushering in spring!

Signature

Bob Wettermann

President, BEST Inc.

See our new mascot-the Soldergeek below!

Bare Board Rework Eliminates Some Board "Spins"

Before Ablation Before Solder Mask Ablated

If you need to have traces cut, pads added, solder mask ablated, boards machined to exacting specs or conductors added; then BEST can be your source. We can quickly modify existing boards, eliminating the wait on a board re-spin, and eliminate the scrapping of many existing boards that are unusable.

BEST can cut down on your board spins and can save lots of WIP from the scrap pile.

Call Laura Ripoli at (847)797-9250 or email her at lripoli@solder.net to get a sample of BEST workmanship.

BEST Develops New Cleaning Tool

BEST has developed one of those tools that you'll have to have on your PCB rework and repair work bench-the new PCBVac(TM).

This is a handheld tool which can vacuum off both liquids and solids from a PCB board. If conformal coating, mask or loose solder fibers need to be removed, this is your tool. If residual flux, cleaning solution or other liquid needs to be removed and "wiped" everywhere on the board, then this is your solution. Think of it as a shop vac for your electronics workbench.

The PCBVac(TM) system is very simple. It connects to your workbench air system for its vacuum power. An ON/OFF switch and a muffled venturi will provide a powerful but quiet resource for the vacuum. Teflon tips can be cut to size just like a tip from a calk tube for differing air flows and sizes of the vacuum source.

Be one of the first to own this product by buying it here.

Another video from the
BEST Technical Symposium
series on QFNs

QFN Rework Demonstration

Check out the videos on our YouTube channel -Solderinggeek- from the recent BEST symposium on bottom terminated components. There is a series of (5) sessions featuring Q/A at the end of the session.

Find this video and more on the BEST YouTube channel

IPC-A-610 CIS Testing
Goes On Line

As we learned recently, the IPC certification program testing and certification registration process is moving on-line. This will help make sure questions remain fresh and enable electronic certifications easier to track. The IPC-A-610CIS program is the first to use this method with other cert programs following suit soon. Tests will still need to be proctored by your company's CIT or an MIT at BEST. The training itself will also ONLY be done in person. If you need assistance, call Katy Radcliff at (847) 797-9250.

New IPC-A-630 Handbook for Electronic Enclosures Released