Jan,
The solder plating really is about .0003" thick. Not much is needed
and everyone kind of cheats on that. We rarely measured the final
thickness of the solder which reminds me of a story.
My plant was visited once by a customer who was a military
contractor. He brought along two Navy big shots who wanted to see
what we were doing. They were in full uniform and watching one of my
guys pulling boards from the solder plating tank. When asked about
checking thickness my plating guy said "ask the boss".
They made some comment about mil spec thickness requirements and
before I could say something to cover my ass my customer said "We've
been dealing with these guys for years... they know what they're
doing and refuse to lower their standards by meeting that MIL SPEC
BULLSHIT".
Well, I was somewhat shocked by this guys comments but he was going
to retire in several months and could care less what anyone thought.
Then one Navy guy said "How do we know that this gentleman is even
the boss" My customer asked them "How many circuit board plants have
you guys visited?". Both Big Brass Navy guys said this was their fist
time. My customer said "Well, look at this knuckleheads pants... the
boss at every circuit board plant has the least amount of acid holes
in his britches" I was shocked and speechless but the Big Navy guys
were laughing their asses off. We all started laughing at that point
and I said lets go to lunch.
While having lunch they told me all kinds of stories "off the record"
some of which were almost unbelieveable. I asked the Big Shots how
their planes were ever able to fly. They're response: "Each one of
those planes is it's own miracle" !!!
Military contracting... lots of paper and mostly BS!!!!
Now thats a true story and it lets you know what really goes on in
some of these high tech companies!
Tom
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, JanRwl@A... wrote:
> In a message dated 12/11/2002 12:01:08 AM Central Standard Time,
> twb8899@y... writes:
>
>
> > Let me clarify the plating issue. Everything past the activator
stage
> > is "electrolytic". In the acid copper plating tank it takes about
30
> > minutes to plate .001" of copper at 25 to 30 amps per square foot.
> >
>
> Gotcha! Thanks for clarification. I HAD originally realized
he "activation"
> was electroless, so it was easy to read confusion into all
that.
>
> Yeah, it'd take some TIME to electroless plate even only 0.001" of
Cu, now,
> wouldn't it! AND, I suspect that wouldn't even be very "nice", if
it'd work
> at all!
>
> I wonder how the "solder plating" can look as thick as if it had
been
> "dipped", if it is only 3 tenths thick as you say??? Hmmm...
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]