Before proceeding ahead, answer us – have you ever soldered a through-hole component on a printed circuit board? If yes, you probably know how important it is to apply the solder meticulously on the joints. If you put too much solder on the connection points, it could lead to solder bridging. And if you use too little solder on the “joining points,” it could translate into making fragile bonds. So, the question arises: how to solder PCBs perfectly so neither the connections remain too weak nor interfere with the nearby joints? For that, your technicians need to learn IPC standards for soldering.
Now another question emerges here, how to train such a massive workforce with the IPC-specified soldering standards? To do this, you can take anyone from the two most popular routes. First, you can buy IPC standards for Soldering in “large” numbers for your staff. Second, you can directly contact a hand soldering training institute in Illinois to enrol your operators and engineers in the soldering course.
Doing this will benefit your electronics company in five ways:
1. Your staff will become IPC-certified and can demonstrate excellent soldering skills.
2. You can deliver high-quality printed circuit boards to your clients.
3. Your professional image in the electronics industry will improve.
4. You will start attracting newer clients to your company.
5. You can build a long-lasting relationship with your existing project providers.
Now that you know the importance of buying training materials like IPC standards for soldering, it’s time to dive deeper into:
What is the importance of IPC standards for Soldering in PCB manufacturing?
It is “extremely” necessary to adhere to the IPC standard for Soldering specified in the IPC-J-STD-001H handbook as it lets you know the widely accepted criteria for soldering materials and processes. That’s not all; when you buy IPC-J-STD-001H guides from a trusted electronics ecommerce store, you will find updated texts, illustrations, and other information in it relating to hand soldering.
Just to let you know, it also contains guidance on the use of x-ray to examine through-hole solder conditions on the printed circuit boards. Taking a glance at this part in the IPC-J-STD-001H standards book is vitally important since it is not feasible to inspect through-hole solder situations by any other means.
So, if your company is deeply involved in the electronics assembly process, overlooking purchasing, this “standard book” will affect the overall quality of circuit boards you manufacture. However, suppose you don’t achieve the desired results even after putting your money on the above training material. In that case, it is good to ask your employees to attend the training and certification programs based on IPC-J-STD-001.
What IPC Through Hole Soldering standards apply to PCB manufacturing?
The IPC-A-610G “Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies” is the “applicable standard” for soldering through-hole components on the printed circuit boards. In this IPC standards book, you will find many topics associated with printed circuit board assemblies, such as the definition of PCB terminologies, the instruction for fixing various through-hole devices on circuit boards, and of course, the most reliable soldering methods.
If you work as a contract manufacturer in the electronic industry, it is vitally important to invest in this handbook. It is the most appropriate electronics guide to see the right through-hole soldering processes and procedures.
Remember, the main concern for most PCB manufacturers in Illinois when manufacturing circuit boards is how to create a good solder joint. The IPC-A-610 handbook answers “exactly” that. It lets you peep into the instructions for achieving a good solder joint with proper wetting requirements and the amount of solder fill required for a plated through-hole.
Thus, if you want to create your own electronics assembly process while satisfying the above requirements, you can include the operations, like:
1. Component preparation for assembly.
2. Component loading into automated assembly equipments.
3. Selective solder.
4. Wave solder.
5. Manual soldering.
6. Touch-up soldering.
Once you ensure that your in-house staff is “well-informed” about how to apply the standards discussed in IPC-A-610G, they can easily succeed in assembling PCBs correctly. The best contract manufacturers always adhere to the entire “standard” instead of focusing only on the specific details required to develop high-quality PCBs. So, if your personnel stay a bit attentive about learning the correct PCB assembly process, it won’t take much time for the given standards to become part of their regular workflow. Be it proper PCBA handling, lightning, procedures, equipment, or other work environment considerations.
The takeaway
We hope you learned multiple things in this blog post ranging from the importance of “IPC standard for soldering” to through-hole soldering. So, if you are a contract manufacturer who wants your technical team to acquire the right soldering skills, help them learn that by buying IPC standards books from the finest electronic shopping site on the internet.
