Faced with the challenges of making contact through today's problem processes such as organic solderability preservatives (OSP), Lead-Free solder paste and No-Clean, QA Technology has a family of razor-sharp steel tips to solve these extreme conditions.
QA’s 8R Steel Razor cuts though fluxes without the added time and cost of repeated fixture actuations and false failures. This 150° tip penetrates without bottoming out in the via flux pool, as typically seen with steeper angled tip styles.
The 8R razor-sharp tip slices through hard to probe fluxes and contaminants, increasing your first pass yields. When contacting extremely difficult to contact lead-free pasted (filled) vias and test pads, razor tip styles have been proven to reduce the number of fixture actuations from as many as five or more, to as few as one. In three independent studies run in actual contract manufacturing environments, the 8R Steel Razor outperformed conventional probes with consistent and reliable contact (see Diagram A).
In Test 2 and 3, spring forces were lowered to reduce stress on the PCBs. Increasing First Pass Yields allows for faster board throughput, saving time and lowering board test costs
QA’s Steel Razor family works on a wide variety of process materials such as Immersion Au (Gold), Ag (Silver), Sn (Tin) and OSP (Organic Solderability Preservative) and many different lead-free solders and fluxes.
It also works well with many manufacturing methods including: wave, select wave and reflow (double and single). These advanced designed tips slice through these challenges and increases your first pass yields by reducing the number of fixture actuations from as many as five or more, to as few as one. Increasing your first pass yields allows for faster board throughput, saving time and lowering board test costs.
Life cycle tested to over 60,000 cycles with 99.9% success rate, tip sharpness.
| Fixture | Cycle | Board Tested | |
| Actuations | Life |
| Standard Steel Blade | 5 | 60,000 | 12,000 |
| 8R Steel Blade | 1 | 60,000 | 60,000 |
