Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1207026
FEBRUARY 2020 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 85 making sure that it's optimized is extremely important as well. Johnson: They run hand in glove. You need the process to make sure that you're properly managing the flux to its greatest capability. Nash: With the current space within manufacturing, a lot of times, the engineers are taxed and have a lot of jobs to do; they're wearing a lot of hats and relying heavily on the material suppliers to help them with their process to provide the knowledge needed to manufacture their assemblies properly and with as few defects as possible. That's where Indium Corporation does a fantastic job of pro- viding the technical knowhow to support our customers. Johnson: Earlier, you mentioned partnering with equipment manufacturers. As you work with a customer to optimize their processes, is this a scenario where the customer's equip- ment engineers and your engineers work together? Nash: In many cases, we may have the process knowledge to fix issues without requesting help from the equipment suppliers. Other times, it's a more challenging and/or cutting-edge tech- nology and challenge, and we will work with equipment suppliers and other industry part- ners to fix the customer's challenges. Matties: Do you ever have contact with the PCB designer? Do they ever have inquiries regard- ing their design and your process? Nash: It is one area that I wish manufactur- ing engineers would have more dialogue with design engineers. A lot of the problems and challenges and defects that the manufacturing engineers deal with daily could be eliminated if the DFM engineers and design engineers would talk more openly. That's a common thread that I've seen throughout the industry since I started in 2005. Although we are getting better at this over time, there is always room for improvement. Andy Shaughnessy: It's funny because design- ers often say they talk to you, but in reality, they don't often communicate. Nash: They communicate to some extent, but there's room for improvement. Some compa- nies will do it better than others. Some com- panies have design rules that the manufac- turing engineers develop and share with the design group. I've also seen where manufac- turing engineers will provide feedback on chal- lenges that they are facing, and they are able to get the recommended changes in the next revi- sion. However, it's not always an easy task for every company or contract manufacturers. Johnson: There are times when you're having a conversation, and what it comes down to is, "We'd be able to do better with this particular product if we had better landing pads. Every- thing else is doing its job as best as it can." Nash: Definitely. One example might be sol- der beading, for instance. Often, what's hap- pening is people miniaturize their boards and leave the designs the same. They're saying, "We can get 0201s a lot cheaper than we can 0402s because the mobile industry has driven the component suppliers to smaller passive components." I've seen companies place 0201 components on an 0402 pad instead of rede- signing the board for that particular compo-