John Norton

John Norton started his soldering career in 1983 for Hollis Engineering. He has also worked with Electrovert as a technical training manager and Vitronics Soltec for the last ten years. He has held various technical development and sales positions.

John Norton has submitted responses to the following questions.

Solder Splashing During Wave Soldering
Your questions does not outline if the splash places solder on the top or the bottom of the assembly. Regardless, ...

Mixing SAC305 and SACX0307 Solder Alloys
I would not recommendmixing the alloys. You maybe able to talk to your solder supplier andexchange the alloy with them.

Test for Flux Penetration
Yes there is a simple visual test, unfortunately the test is only completed on bear PCB boards so it will ...

Components Lifting During Wave Soldering
This is always and interesting question. Many of us believe that when we see a crescent wrench that was dropped ...

Solder Bridging Problem on Header Connector
First you will need to determine if this is a design related bridging issue or a process related defect. For ...

Component Storage Recommendations
To prevent oxidation nitrogen environment at nominal room temp is your best choice.

Problems with Insufficient Barrel Fill
Insufficient barrel fill can be caused by many aspects in a wave soldering process. Some of these can be machine ...

Concerns Using Aluminum Flux Tank
If aluminum being used as a holding tank for flux is not a good idea. The tank will corrode from ...

What is a Disturbed Solder Connection?
What is a disturbed solder joint? This is a interesting and difficult question to answer. There are many terms and ...

Solder Joint Explosions
Most likely this would be what is called blow holes. They will have the appearance of a volcano top shape ...

Spray Fluxer Uniformity Question
There are a few methods that are good rules of thumb for uniformity. You really should be looking at three ...

Wave Soldering Fine Pitch Through Hole Components
Bridging of close thru-hole terminations has long been an issue in design and assembly practices. There are a number of ...

No Clean Flux Stains
Most oven incorporate some type of flux management system. They are either standard or optional features of an oven. Look ...

What is the Proper DI Water Resistivity?
The maximum resistivity of treated water should be 18,3 M-Ohms. Classification for Electronic assembly water resistivity does exist. Should be ...

Cause of Blow Holes During Wave Soldering
Most likely this is being cause by no escape route for the flux gas when the PCB enters the wave. ...

Re-certify a reflow oven after moving
Most ovens can be transported without difficulty. If you would like a process verification of the oven itself there are ...

Set up for lead-free wave soldering
This is somewhat a difficult question to answer. With wave soldering the process parameters are more related to the assembly ...

Tin-lead and No-lead Compatibility
There is considerable test data available on this one of the sites is Vitronics Soltec under 5 steps to lead ...

Cleaning No-clean Flux with Tap Water
Depends on the no clean paste being used. Most likely it will turn the no clean solder paste or flux ...

Questions About Solder to Flex Circuits
I would suggest that this is completed in a traditional SMT process with solder paste and an oven with blow ...

Wave Soldering Problems
Poor topside fillet can be caused by many points. I suggest the following: If using spray fluxer the flux has ...

Cleaning to Remove Solder Balls
It would depend on what the solder paste chemistry is. If it requires the use of a chemicals to dissolve ...

Solder Deposits on Components During Wave Soldering
In wavesoldering any termination that will wet to the solder while being submerged has the ability to bridge. It's more ...