Storage and preparation before printing the solder paste

17, Mar, 2017
 
Soldering tin paste series
Soldering tin paste is the most important joint material for modern printing wiring board and surface makeup technique(SMT). It is determinate factor for ideal and steady soldering effect that chooses appropriate tin paste. Its alloy composition and content and flux type should be concerned. Storage of solder paste
The solder paste should be stored in refrigeration at 0-10℃ as it arrives. Please note that, never store the solder paste in freezing. On the other hand, if there is some solder paste left after a assembly process and you hope to use it in the next assembly process, the left solder paste should be stored in a container, sealed and left at room temperature. Please note that, one the solder paste is unsealed, it should not be re-refrigerated.
Preparation before printing the solder paste
Prior to printing, the solder paste must be handled correctly as the followings,
Do not remove any seal until the solder paste has warmed naturally to room temperature. The typical warming or stabilizing time for solder paste is 4-6 hours. After the solder paste has reached ambient temperature, stirring/mixing is necessary before printing in order to ensure a uniform distribution of any separate material throughout the solder paste. Stir the paste lightly and thoroughly in on direction for one to three minutes using a special mixing is recommended.
Solder paste printing
Screen/stencil printing is the effective method to apply the solder paste on the corresponding printed circuit board. Since the viscosity of solder paste is sensitive to ambient temperature and humidity, the printing environment should be kept at 18-24℃ and 40-50f%RH. Meanwhile, air flow should be avoided.
Some principles for application
First in, first out. The oldest solder paste in stock always should be used first if it still satisfies the necessary requirement. If the left solder paste is continually used in the next assembly process, it should be mixed with new solder paste in a 1:1 proportion. Do not only use the “old” solder paste.
Granule distributing of tin powder
The tin powder is made by azotes environment and strict quality control. It has the advantages of high purity, low oxygen content and accordant granule distributing. For storage of fresh tin and without oxy-genation, each package of tin is stored by vacuum packing.
The solder paste can be expressed by DHL/FEDEX with short shipping duration.
Tin beads
In the production process of SMT, mostly appear tin beads phenomenon, which brought many losses for the production and processing
Flux residues
The main reason, defect production process of flux, inappropriate formula, inferior quality.
Paste dry
In practical production, the PCB printing and soldering process are not wroking at a same time, the printed PCB is quite easy to occure a dry problem, it is not only affect the effect of soldering, and also will cause lots of processes of back soldering and repair soldering, seriously affect the quality of products and production efficiency.
The stability of solder paste is a key factor of deciding the solder paste is easy to be dry or not. Adopts the most advanced flux activity system, even at a high soldering temperature, the solder patte can complet the soldering besause the the great activity, in addtition, it can keep stability at room temperature