Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1379105
JUNE 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 9 Nolan Johnson is managing editor of SMT007 Magazine. Nolan brings 30 years of career experience focused almost entirely on electronics design and manufacturing. To contact Johnson, click here. to prepare for assembly, and soldering. In his writings, I-Connect007 columnist Joe Fjelstad oen points out that solder joints are the num- ber one cause of assembly failures. In fact, Joe advocates certain no-solder assembly tech- niques to eliminate entirely the solder joint and all the weaknesses that entails. But for the foreseeable future, solder joints will be a major factor in attaching components to boards, which means cleaning and surface preparation will continue to be factors as well. "If it don't stink… ." Once you have those solder joints in place, protecting them from environmental effects becomes important. Coatings come in a wide variety of materials, with a wide variety of application methods, for an immeasurable number of environmental effects from which to protect the electronics. e considerations certainly seem overwhelming. Which is why we turned to Phil Kinner as our expert on the topic for this issue. Not only does Phil weigh in on the current state of coatings in an article on the topic, but elsewhere in the issue we high- light three micro-webinar sessions from Phil's 12-part series, "Coatings Uncoated," wherein Phil packs in a primer on coatings, and a series of case studies in which it did need to be stirred up a bit. Of course, what the whole editorial team came to realize was that, while the details may be changing with the times, the fundamentals in cleaning and surface prep haven't changed much at all. at inspired Happy Holden to dig back into our technical libraries to pull out pre- viously published columns from industry pio- neer Karl Dietz on the topic. For those of you who knew Karl, he was a force to be reckoned with during his time in the industry. e world recently lost Karl and he's been on the edito- rial team's mind. As we all took the walk down memory lane with Karl's body of work, we realized how valuable it was to re-publish the portions concentrating on the fundamentals. ey are, simply, still applicable—if it don't stink, don't stir it? Yep, you guessed it. As a part of our ongoing coverage in 2021 for continuous improvement—the year of "X = X c –1"—cleaning, surface prep, and coat- ings can be important factors in quality improvements. We enjoy hearing your per- sonal stories about continuous improvement. If you have a continuous improvement expe- rience to share, contact us at editorial@icon- nect007.com. SMT007