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A perfect top-side fillet doesn’t guarantee a solid solder joint inside the barrel for IPC Class 3 assemblies. Poor vertical fill often results from design flaws like an incorrect hole-to-lead ratio causing gas lock, or insufficient pre-heating that allows the PCB to act as a heat sink, freezing the solder prematurely.

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When a prototype with a high-end FPGA fails, rework is a high-stakes salvage operation. This process demands a deep understanding of thermal physics to avoid destroying the board, turning a simple repair into a complex engineering challenge where the entire project is at risk.

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The quality of a box build is determined not by its polished exterior, but by its internal cabling. A clean, well-documented harness indicates reliability and prevents thermal and mechanical failures, while a messy ‘rats nest’ is a sign of future problems.

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Placing a via inside a component pad creates a pressure vessel that can “volcano” during reflow, causing catastrophic assembly defects. This guide explains why common tenting methods fail and how specifying IPC-4761 Type VII (Via-in-Pad Plated Over) is the only reliable engineering solution to prevent outgassing and ensure a reliable solder joint.

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When ink or label-based serial numbers wash away during manufacturing or degrade in the field, your product’s audit trail is lost forever. Laser ablation, a process that removes material rather than adding it, is the only truly permanent solution for PCB traceability that survives the harsh SMT process.

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Sharp, 90-degree corners in flex PCB coverlay openings look precise but create massive stress risers that lead to cracked copper traces. Proper design requires radiused corners and oversized openings to account for adhesive flow, preventing catastrophic field failures.

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