Reducing the Cost of Welding Paste in the Surface Assembly Technology (SMT) Process

The Surface Mounting Technology (SMT) industries have overcome many challenges over the past few years with regard to their position in relation to environmental issues and cost reduction. One of the concerns lies in the fact that the welding procedures for electronic components incorporate lead, which poses risks to operators involved in the production processes, as well as a high value in the cost of solder paste. The most common alloy is lead free, it is a tin-based alloy, which replaces lead with 3.9% silver and 0.6% copper. The alloy is known as (SAC) Sn3,9Ag0,6Cu. The material is applied to the process used in the manufacture of about 70% of the computer boards currently produced. The need to migrate welding processes to this new type of technology requires companies to adopt a strategy of change appropriate to the maintenance of current processes and their gradual replacement by lead-free welding processes and their implications for costs. The main objective of this dissertation is to present the development of the solder process in local paste in order to reduce production costs, maintaining the quality and reliability of the product, especially the main plates of Televisions. This study, in addition to presenting a bibliographic review involving the SMT process, will explore the concepts about the types of solder pastes so that the reader can have a better understanding of what will be proposed as well as, the description of the case study in a factory in the Manaus Industrial Pole (PIM). The results show that the local industry seeks in a planned and consistent way to process innovations and process cost reduction. The cost reduction mainly includes the reduction in the cost of raw material, the main competitive advantage of Chinese companies, usually 30% cheaper than that of competitors (despite the inferior quality). It is concluded that it is possible to evidence the significant reduction in the costs of solder paste in the process of surface assembly technology (SMT) with its manufacture made locally, reducing transportation cost, importation costs and stock (transit and factory).