Indium Corp. (Utica, NY), Speedline Technologies (Franklin, MA) and KIC (San Diego, CA) recently announced a cosponsored lead-free implementation workshop. The workshop, How To Implement Pb-Free At Your Factory, is a one-day seminar focused on how to implement a lead-free electronics assembly process. The seminar will be held March 16 at the Speedline facility in Foxboro, MA. The cost is $295 per person.

The seminar is scheduled to cover these topics:

• review of current legislation and practices in lead-free electronics assembly
• current alloys in use and why and how they were selected
• printed wiring board (PWB) finishes for lead-free assembly
• component concerns in lead-free assembly
• best practices in surface-mount processes for lead-free assembly: printing, placement, reflow, wave
• implementing the lead-free reflow process
• special considerations for large boards
• establishing a lead-free implementation plan.

The seminar will also include a special case study: Implementing Lead Free to Assemble Five Million Cell Phones: The Motorola Experience. This case study will cover:

• solder paste evaluation
• statistical analysis of process data
• process optimization
• analysis and corrective actions for failure modes such as tombstoning
• reliability analysis.

Other detailed information that will be presented includes:

• state of lead-free legislation, marketing, and implementation worldwide
• current alloy systems in use and why and how they were chosen
• which PWB finishes are preferred in lead-free assembly
• concerns with components and the status of lead-free components in the industry
• best practices for setting up your stencil printing, placement, inspection, reflow, and wave
• effect of lead-free manufacturing on the reflow process, achieving and maintaining the tight process window
• how to perform design of experiment (DOE) to optimize your lead-free process
• how to establish a statistical process control program.

Scheduled seminar speakers include Dr. Ronald C. Lasky, Marc Apell and Marybeth Allen.

Dr. Lasky is a senior technologist at Indium Corp. and a visiting professor at Dartmouth College. He has over 20 years experience in electronic and optoelectronic packaging at IBM, Universal Instruments, Cookson Electronics and Indium Corp. He has authored or edited five books on science, electronics and optoelectronics and numerous technical papers. He has also been an adjunct professor at several colleges and has taught over 20 different courses on topics ranging from electronics packaging, materials science, physics, mechanical engineering and science and religion. Dr. Lasky holds numerous patent disclosures and is the developer of several new concepts in surface-mount processing software relating to cost estimating, line balancing and process optimization. He is the co-creator of engineering certification exams in electronics assembly and was awarded the Surface Mount Technology Association's Founder's Award in 2003.

Apell is director of thermal and cleaning products for Speedline Technologies, where he is responsible for the ACCEL cleaning systems and ELECTROVERT cleaning, reflow and wave soldering systems. Apell was previously with Cookson Electronics since 1995 and has held the positions of material planner, master scheduler, inside sales manager and reflow product manager, interfacing between sales and operations to meet customer and operational demands. Apell holds a B.S. in operations management from DeVry University, Kansas City.

As the national sales manager for KIC, Allen has expertise in the management of the thermal process. She has 20 years of experience in the electronics assembly industry covering surface mount, thick film and packaging. Traveling throughout North America, she has the opportunity to work with various electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with commercial, medical and military products. As project manager she works with manufacturers of equipment and materials for board and package assembly for thermal processes. Allen is in charge of KIC's partner program. She is a past chapter president of SMTA and IMAPS and has authored various industry papers.

For more information, access www.indium.com/QuickStart or call (315) 381-7598.