Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1284035
78 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2020 Hardin: We carry what we call a little "demo pot." It looks like a little tiny crockpot, but it's an industrial version. It's also a miniature ver- sion of what the process looks like, but it's something that we can hand-carry in there. We ask the customer to collect 10–15 pounds of their typical solder dross, and then we set up and recycle that together. It takes about two hours to set up the equipment. We'll take a sample from the solder pot that the dross came from and call that our "before" sample. Then, we remove the dross from the solder pot and weigh it. We put it into our offline process line melting pot. We melt it, and then add the required amount of MS2 needed for 10–15 pounds, depending on the weight. We mix it for about 10 minutes, and then everything returns to metal. We take a sample from that pot and pour out the bars, which is a big selling point to the engineers and to the customers. When they see dirty sol- der dross, it's like dirt going into a melting pot; and at the end, when we're done, we're pour- ing out brand-new shiny bars. That's when it really hits home to them that this works. We weigh everything, showing them how we put in 10 pounds of dross and got out nine pounds of solder bars. We recovered 90%. We know what recovery to expect going forward, do some simple math right there, and we tell them, "Based on your current sol- der bar purchases price and what you're get- ting paid for your dross, here's your value." In the end, we take those solder samples from the solder pot—from the wave solder machine that the dross came from—and then we have the sample from our offline unit from recycling the dross. It shows customers that there's no change to the alloy. Whatever the alloy is inside the wave solder machine is identical to the alloy that you're getting out in your sol- der bars. Johnson: Because all you've done is sep- arate out the oxide. Hardin: Correct. It does not affect the alloy in any way. It acts like a soap or a degreaser. some convincing to the customer, but we're always able to prove to them that it does not. Your process and quality do not change. If anything, we've even been told that they see improvement. Johnson: That would seem to be rather criti- cal given what's going on in the industry right now—for example, microvia issues, challenges with packaging, solder adhesion and wetting. These topics are on the minds of the assem- blers. A new process like this, which is not only more efficient but also keeps customers inside spec, is going to be critical. Hardin: Yes. From our many years of experience working with each customer hands on, this is the first hill that we climb—we have to prove it to them, and we're willing to do that. We come in as a team. We don't just send prod- ucts throughout the world. We're either seeing the customer ourselves or it's one of our part- ners/distributors whom we personally trained. If you're the customer, we prove the process out and look at those numbers with you. We help you gather them, and we prove that your process is not going to be affected in any way, except that you're going to be saving boatloads of money. Johnson: Let's walk through what a customer demo, verification, validation, and engagement looks like. The Akila off-line solder recovery unit.