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Tin Plating Solders Well Manually, but Pinholes when Wave Soldered

July 26, 2018

Q. We manufacture PCB mountable transformers.The wire is terminated on tin plated pins with diameter 0.7mm and length 6mm. The pins are tin coated CCS i.e Copper Clad Steel. I am not sure of the thickness of copper cladding and tin plating.

When we do soldering at our works, the wire gets soldered properly to the pins and the surface looks smooth with naked eye. However when my customer puts our component on PCB and does wave soldering, pin holes appear in the solder indicating corrosion of the pins at the point of pin hole.

It is to be noted that this has happened for the first time in this month and the reason for this is rainy season.

I have following queries:

1.) I am desperately looking out for a way to reuse this material. Is there a way I can remove this oxidation and do tinning again. We cannot wet these pieces as in doing electroplating again as these are finished pieces we are talking about.

2.) Is there a way to check for porosity in tin plating in house?

3.) How do I check the quality of tin plating for life / corrosion in High Humidity High Temperature condition, does salt spray test work for testing this condition?

Thanks

Pankaj Agarwal
- Ghaziabad, UP, India