BANNOCKBURN, IL — The IPC Solder Products Value Council has begun a research program on Take Action Limits, also known as dump pot specifications.

The SPVC hopes to provide consistent recommendations for action levels on wave soldering alloys contaminate. The group will evaluate the effect of impurity limits on Pb-free solder performance by conducting wetting time and wetting force tests. A third-party test facility will study samples to determine if a correlation exists between bridging and copper concentration.

The SPVC plans to publish its findings and list TAL, along with guidelines for solder pot management, in the first quarter 2008.

According to AIM Inc. vice president of technology and SPVC chairman Karl F. Seelig, “Take Action Limits, also known as ‘dump pot specifications,’ are very important to any electronics manufacturing company using flow soldering techniques either in selective soldering or wave soldering. Our objective is to develop better-defined limits to guide electronics manufacturers on a more efficient use of solder and as a result, improved yields.”

Paul Lotosky, director of customer technical support at Cookson Electronics, is heading up the research effort.