Reliability Matters

Episode 100: A 100th Episode Special (Recorded Live) This is the 100th episode of the Reliability Matters podcast! Hear clips from past episodes and messages from past guests on their views about reliability. A special thanks to the 117 guests I have had the privilege to learn from. Also, thank you to my listeners and viewers of this podcast. I sincerely appreciate all of you. As we pass more than...

Today, we're going to talk about cleanliness testing of post-reflowed circuit assemblies. In late 2018, IPC shocked the electronic assembly community by introducing an amendment to section 8 of the J-STD-001G. This amendment radically changed the way industry determines cleanliness. Now, assemblers must prove their assemblies are clean enough not to experience electro-chemical migration events whi...

Jen Fijalkowski works for Aim Solder. Jen obtained her B.S. from the University of Rhode Island in Chemical Engineering and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Prior to her role as a Technical Marketing Engineer, she interned as a SMT Process Engineer, where she analyzed various reports regarding solder paste printing and co-authored "Comparison of Aperture Designs, Solder Pastes, Nanocoatin...

In this episode I speak with four experts about best practices for purchasing X ray equipment. There are numerous manufacturers of X ray equipment each with multiple models with varying capabilities. Which type of X ray equipment is right for your application? What are the price ranges? What are the specific capabilities? What questions should I ask when speaking with manufacturers of X ray equipm...

Episode 96: A Conversation with Industry Gurus Phil Zarrow and Jim Hall about their New Book A couple of episodes ago, I talked to Dr. and Professor Ron Lasky about a couple of books he wrote. He also recommended a book he didn't write. That book is titled Troubleshooting Electronic Assembly: Wisdom from the BoardTalk Crypt by industry gurus Phil Zarrow and Jim Hall available on Amazon (both were...

I spoke with Dr. Ron Lasky and Jim Hall, authors of the SMTA SMT Certification Courses (along with Phil Zarrow) about the content of these courses. I also spoke with two course students, Claire Hotvedt of Indium Corporation and Tom Watson of Kimball Electronics about their experience taking the courses and the value they received. SMTA offers two certification courses: • SMT Processes • Lean Six S...

Dr. Ron Lasky talks about the many books he has authored on SMT processes and production efficiencies. Dr. Ron Lasky is a Senior Technologist at Indium Corporation, as well as a Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College, where I have twice had the privilege of speaking on the Dartmouth campus to his students. If you're like some people who view the next generation of young adults skeptically a...

Dr. Kunal Shah is the President and Chief Scientist at Lilotree, a manufacturer of novel surface finishes for circuit boards. Dr. Shah explains the advantages of surface finishes utilizing the thinnest thickness of gold as well as Ni-Less ENIG surface finishes. Lilotree: 2904 266th Ave NE, Building B, Redmond, WA, 98053 https://www.lilotree.com contact.us@lilotree.com Phone: +1-425-780-2732

Thank you to my friend and colleague Trevor Galbraith of Global SMT for allowing me to broadcast from his studio at the IPC APEX Expo in San Diego. Today's episode features conversations with two guests: Marco Sanchez from SMT North America talks about thermal control of reflow ovens. marco.sanchez@smtna.com Colin Harper of BPM talks about automatic device programming. colin_harper@bpmmicro.com

Thank you to my friend and colleague Trevor Galbraith of Global SMT for allowing me to broadcast from his studio at the IPC APEX Expo in San Diego. Today's episode features conversations with four guests: Jesper Lykke from Viscom talks about inspection systems. jesper.lykke@viscomusa.com Greg Papandrew from Direct PCB talks about PCB buying and his new book "PCB Basics for Buyers" greg@boardbuying...

While it may seem like an untimely topic given the current supply chain shortages, storage systems for electronic components are an important part of the electronic assembly industry. While we are still in the midst of a supply chain crisis, sooner or later this will be solved and the question of where to put all of our components will be waiting for us to answer. It's often said we don't have tim...

Tombstoning is a reflow issue causing components to stand up, creating opens. FCT Solder's Tony Lentz discusses the causes and mitigation techniques to illuminate tombstoning. Tony Lentz has worked in the electronics industry since 1994. He entered the industry as a process engineer at a circuit board manufacturer and worked there for 5 years. Since 1999, Tony has worked for FCT Companies as a che...

One of my favorite subjects is the electrification of automobiles, not just electric cars, which are with us now, but completely autonomous vehicles. When I was a kid in the 1960's, we were promised flying cars by the year 2000. While that goal was not met, the real prospect of autonomous vehicles in our lifetime is extremely exciting, terrifying, and realistic. Brian and I discuss the future of t...

My guest today is Joel Scutchfield. He’s with Koh Young and has 35 years in the Printed Circuit Board Assembly Industry, beginning on the manufacturing side in 1986, first with Texas Instruments, and then later with United Technologies Corporation. In the mid 90's he transitioned to the supply side of the industry where he used his process and manufacturing experience to help customers implement t...

Today's episode is all about training. With more young people entering the EMS industry, the need for training is higher than ever before. In this episode we'll talk with IPC training expert Bob Doetzer about the benefits of training. Both training to IPC standards and practical training will be discussed. Bob Doetzer, President of Circuit Technology Training, Inc (or CTTI for short). CTTI offers...

Welcome to this special edition of the reliability matters podcast. unlike other episodes, this episode has no guests. At the time of this recording, we have 85 published episodes with more than 16,000 downloads. The reliability matters podcast began as an experiment. I figured we would produce about 10 episodes on various subjects and then move on to something else. Well, I was wrong. I have rece...

Episode 83: A Conversation about Solder Paste Inspection with Christopher Frederickson Today, we’ll be discussing Fit for Use solder paste inspection. As I’ve repeated several times on this show, it is said most reliability problems begin at the printer. Our industry utilizes a lot of materials in order to produce a circuit assembly. If the materials, specifically the solder paste is out of spec,...

Miles Moreau is KIC’s General Manager, has been with KIC for nearly three decades. He draws his deep and rich expertise from managing multiple business units across four continents spanning operations, field service, and sales and marketing channels. His expertise is in thermal management and that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today. We’ve discussed how to profile a board on this show....

My guest today is Paul Salerno. Paul holds an MBA with specialization in finance and marketing from Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is the Global Portfolio Manager at MacDermid Alpha Electronic Solutions with expertise in product lifecycle management and development of strategic technology roadmaps for the global surface mount technology business. Paul works with customers in both Europe a...

On this episode, I spoke with IPC's Chief Technologist Matt Kelly and IPC Technical Program Co-Chairs Stan Rak (SF Rak Company) and Bev Christian (HDP User Group) about the upcoming IPC APEX Expo 2022 live technical conference. We discuss the following topics: • IPC's "Factory of the Future Pavilion" • IPC's 3-Hour Professional Development Courses (31 courses!) • IPC's Technical Program (4 technol...

My guests Cheryl Tulkoff (She/Her) and Greg Caswell discuss their new book "Design for Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing" (published by Wiley and available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Wiley). Cheryl and Greg are giving away a free copy of their new book (a $130 value)! Listen or watch this episode to learn how to win their informative book. Book details: DESIGN FOR EXCELLENCE IN ELECTRONI...

I spoke with Dave Trail from Arch Systems about Industry 4.0. Dave may be reached here: mailto:dtrail@archsys.io 808-868-8298

SMTA's Surface Mount Technology International is back as a live event! The team behind the show and conference discuss the various activities taking place at SMTAI including the exhibition floor, professional development courses, technical presentations, special events and more. SMTAI 2021 takes place November 1-4 in Minneapolis, MN. More information and registration is available here: https://smt...

My guest has been quoted saying his personal mission is to make industry a profitable place; where individuals and manufacturers possess the resources, knowledge, and courage to sustainably lower their operating costs. I speak with James about his maintenance philosophies and his work teaching maintenance best practices. James may be reached here: James Kovacevic, MMP CMRP CAMA jkovacevic@eruditio...

A conversation with media personalities Mike Buetow (Circuits Assembly Magazine), Trevor Galbraith (Global SMT & Packaging), Phil Stoten (Scoop TV), and Eric Miscoll (EMC Now). During our conversation we covered various topics including post pandemic production, innovations within our industry, supply chain and labor shortages, and more. My guests may be reached here: Mike Buetow mbuetow@upmediagr...