The World's Most Effective Soldering Training and Certification

Yes, You Can Eliminate Defects and Failures

Soldering in almost every electronics assembly plant suffers from defects, inefficiencies, excessive costs of materials and/or equipment. But few plants realize they are underperforming because they are comparing themselves to other companies whose processes are exactly the same and are also underperforming.

We knew defects and failures are avoidable. So why do they exist? A few reasons include:

Knowledge confined to a few specialists rather than spread throughout the company
Training rather than educating (telling people what to do but not providing the knowledge to understand their jobs and perform well)
Belief that touchup and rework are acceptable and unavoidable rather than costly, unreliable and avoidable
Using jargon rather than everyday language; the jargon gets in the way of effective meetings and decision–making
No single source to obtain a simple yet thorough education in the Science of Soldering©
Lack of access to information about global best practices

The only way to overcome these institutional problems is to approach personnel development in a totally new way. We created teaching tools and support materials that would:

Make soldering simple
Allow everyone to understand and use the core science to improve processes, and
Break down the organizational barriers to success

The result is Science of Soldering©, proven effective by clients around the world.

Quit underperforming. Quit living with defects and failures. Put Science of Soldering© to work in your plant.

For more information, call (727)866-6502 ext. 21 or use this form.

Science of Soldering© — The Only Training Compatible With Modern Components

Meet A-610 and J-STD-001 Requirements Easily Without Touchup or Rework

A-610 and J-STD-001 are industry-wide acceptance standards. But how do you meet those acceptance standards? A-610 and J-STD-001 training is only concerned with identifying defects; they provide no help in preventing defects. So operators resort to touchup and rework to make defects look reliable.

Unfortunately, a reworked solder connection is just a more attractive defect. Even worse, the additional heat from touchup and rework degrades components. Moreover, heat damage caused by using the techniques taught in other training coursesis responsible for most product failures. (The traditional soldering techniques were developed for attaching wires to vacuum tube sockets. Using these techniques guarantees component failures. Please read this for more information.)

The Process Knowledge That Ensures You Will Exceed the Highest Reliability Requirements

Science of Soldering© provides the process knowledge that ensures you will meet the highest reliability requirements requirements easily and consistently without touchup or rework. This is essential knowledge that you won't get from A–610 and J–STD–001 classes. For the operator curriculum, please go here. For the engineering curriculum, please go here.

Your failure rates and warranty claims will go down and your worker productivity will go up. Science of Soldering© quickly pays for itself in savings from higher productivity and reliability.

Science of Soldering© delivers much more than any other solder training and certification. All classes take place in your own offices and cost less than you think. And Science of Soldering© is the high reliability soldering certification recognized as the symbol of excellence by the leading electronics manufacturers.

The High Reliability Soldering Certification Recognized By the Industry Leaders

Science of Soldering© will develop your employees’ abilities in critically important ways that other training doesn’t. A few examples:

Defect Prevention: Science of Soldering© teaches how to set up and manage processes to prevent defects. soldering training simply emphasizes cosmetic criteria for evaluating output; no real process management knowledge is provided.

Fewer Rejections of Reliable Product: Making perfect solder connections is only part of what is necessary to cut costs and increase reliability. Every time an acceptable connection is rejected and reworked, costs go up and reliability goes down. Science of Soldering© eliminates the confusion that causes rejection of reliable work.

Education, Not Memorization: Science of Soldering is education, not simple training; it teaches why as well as what. The lessons are presented with demonstrations, experiments, hands–on process problem troubleshooting, and elaborate video.

Essential Knowledge: Science of Soldering© teaches essential aspects of soldering you won't find in other courses. Some of that critical information includes wetting forces, solderability, purposes and characteristics of fluxes, heat control, oxidation and deoxidation, surface cleanliness, ionic contamination and the critical process difference between surfaces that melt and those that don’t.

Easy For Everyone to Understand: The lessons, while technical, are presented in ways that make them clear to everyone from the newest operator to the most senior engineer.

Prevention of Heat Damage: Science of Soldering© teaches a simple but powerful technique to prevent heat damage from hand soldering, the cause of most component failures. We developed this essential technique that has been proven to reduce product failure rates by up to 83%. This unique heat control technique means that Science of Soldering is the only soldering course designed for modern solid state components..

Return on Investment: We show our clients how to cut spending on everything from tools to electricity and these changes typically repay the program cost in just a few months. Training that focuses on memorization of acceptability criteria does not provide these cost reductions and reliability improvements — the training is pure expense.

Education Through Experiments and Demonstrations

Science of Soldering© teaches by troubleshooting a complex hands–on soldering process problem. In solving the problem (which involves several causes rather than a single root cause), the class learns the critical scientific forces that control all soldering from simple hand soldering to the most complex machine soldering.

Every class — for operators , engineers and managers — begins with this basic knowledge development. Operator classes then focus on further skills development and comprehension of reliability requirements (click here for a typical curriculum). Engineering sessions then go into the science in greater detail and explain machine soldering and process management (curriculum) including hands–on shop–floor implementation assistance. The result is that everyone in the company shares the same basic knowledge and terminology. Operators, who generally see their function as reworking/touching up defects, gain the confidence and ability to report process and materials issues to engineers for corrective action.

Yes, Science of Soldering© does make control of the soldering process easy. But it also improves inter–departmental communication, develops problem–solving skills, generates curiosity and a willingness to question every aspect of the organization. In short, it does everything lean manufacturing wants to do — but Science of Soldering© works much faster and more effectively than generic lean because the approach is specific to electronics manufacturing.

Science of Soldering© is not like anything you have ever experienced. It is so different that the only way to truly appreciate how and why it works is by experiencing it. For more information, including our unique risk–free guarantee, please use this form or call James A. (Jim) Smith, Managing Director, at (727)866–6502 extension 21.

Are Your Operators Causing Failures?

The soldering techniques found in other solder training were developed for soldering wires to vacuum tube sockets. Those techniques seriously damage modern components and are responsible for most component failures. (See here for more information.)

However, these courses cause even more serious damage to the student. Courses that consist simply of memorizing visual criteria cause students to believe that defects can be made reliable with touchup and rework. They can't; a touched up defect is just a more attractive defect.

We Must Teach How to Prevent Defects

Memorizing images of solder connections has little benefit if the individual does not understand the process steps needed to achieve perfect soldering and prevent defects. Humans learn by doing, not just by studying pictures. That's why Science of Soldering© consists of hands–on experiments, demonstrations and process problem–solving using the scientific knowledge gained from the extensive DVD–based audio–visual lessons.

Learning by Overcoming Process Problems

Moreover, students learn little when performing exercises in which the materials have been chosen to ensure success. After all, defects occur in production because materials are not always perfect. So our core exercises consist of materials that are far from perfect, just like the challenges faced every day at work. Then the students troubleshoot and solve this out–of–control process. These are the skills — identifying and solving the reasons for defects — that equip the student to eliminate defects on the job.