Dwight, I spot check boards. I lack sufficiently sensitive instruments to measure actual thickness (even on a surface plate, it's the same for ENIG as hard gold with an 0.0001" indicator) but ENIG won't stand up to a few swipes with an ink eraser, whereas hard gold will stand up to it no problem. The main issue I've seen, in buying other people's products and projects, is board houses passing off ENIG as hard gold (and charging for it!) or claiming they're using "extra heavy ENIG" -- which of course isn't a thing, because ENIG is an ion swap!
Thanks, Jonathan On Fri, Aug 16, 2019 at 1:14 PM dwight via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > I was wondering, does anyone check the thickness of the gold plating > anymore. Years ago, working at another large company, we saw quite a bit of > cheating on this. > Trust but verity. > Dwight > > ________________________________ > From: cctalk <cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org> on behalf of Dennis Boone > via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > Sent: Friday, August 16, 2019 8:46 AM > To: cctalk@classiccmp.org <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: GW-DEC-1: A New DEC Prototyping Board > > > I've gotten the distinct impression that US board houses really are > > only interested in government/military/aerospace work. I've often > > wondered what it would take to set up a modern "no human interaction" > > line and if one could be even a little competitive with the Chinese > > on it. > > Based on a couple of youtube videos I've seen in the last year (sorry, > don't have links), I'm not sure it's entirely fair to describe the > Chinese board house process as "no human interaction". I mean, sure, > web form submission, but they seem to have a lot of "engineers" checking > designs, and factory workers, and... > > De >
