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Reply to "Model Railroader warning that some soldering irons can leak current through tip and destroy electronics."

SIRT posted:

Post is a bit misleading. First of all, who uses a soldering gun on small electronic circuit boards?

I've worked on tens of thousands of electronic items using Weller WTCP irons for over 40 years now, never had an issue. Hakko is generally the dominant and safe iron used in today's facilities. If people took a deeper dive into todays electronic BGA's & protection circuits, they wouldn't be assuming and generalizing such things.

With my curiosity piqued i checked the RoHS iron in my lab (Haako FP102) and found the tip satisfactorily grounded.  I asked one of our manufacturing engineers about this subject and our expectation is that the tips are grounded, period.  We have 30 or 40 Haako irons on the manufacturing floor and they are calibrated annually.  There is nothing specific in FDA good manufacturing practices, SMTA, or IPC, or even our own Quality Manufacturing Procedures that indicate anything to the otherwise.  

I wonder if the author of the MR article was soldering a powered board?!

For BGA;s and QFN's we use a variety of specialized heat guns.

Lou N

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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