The criticality of component forming and tinning in a high‐reliability low‐volume facility

Dealing with forming and tinning in a low‐volume high‐reliability environment is a never‐ending challenge. This process is one of the most critical steps in SMT fabrication. The effects of forming and tinning contribute to a majority of the defects found at final inspection. The intention of this paper is to describe in detail the forming and tinning process and all that it entails. The topics include: forming, tinning, converting to an automated process, process control techniques, and statistical process capability.