Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1529988
8 SMT007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2024 Nolan's Notes by Nolan Johnson, I-CONNECT007 Soldering Technologies e QWERTY keyboard is an anachro- nism, yet it is ubiquitous. It was conceived in the early 1870s by Christopher Latham Sholes, and finalized by the Remington Com- pany in 1878 for use in mechanical typewrit- ers. It's 150 years later and that keyboard lay- out is still arguably the primary interface to our data-driven world. Other keyboard lay- outs—the Dvorak, for example—are reputed to be more efficient, faster, and given to less hand strain. But QWERTY, with all its foi- bles, persists, relegating the other keyboards to niche status. Quirks and all, no one can deny that the QWERTY keyboard gets the job done, and well enough that the world resists the change. ere are schools of thought that solder- ing methods are similarly anachronistic but still useful enough not to be worth chang- ing. While that may be true, I see that sol- dering technologies are experiencing signifi- cant changes. It might not be apparent on the surface, but changes are afoot, and there are some disruptive things underway as well. Photonic soldering, for example, provides capabilities that traditional methods don't.