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On production boards, at least for boards with vias going through the
board, vias are plugged because of the wave soldering process. It does not
bring any extra reliability to the finished product. You will notice that
boards that go through a reflow soldering process do not have plugged vias.
For such boards, solder paste is added by silk screen printing only where
it is actually needed.
So do not bother putting solder in the vias, you will just waste time.

At 11:06 06/12/03, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
>OK, I know that's a beginner question, but I've been making proto boards
>for only a short time now, and don't know the answer to everything.
>I've seen production boards with the vias plugged and want to know if it
>will help reliability, if it's good practice, etc.
>
>Should I plug the vias?  Does it make it more reliable (keep out flux
>and other stuff)?  Or does this make the through hole connection less
>reliable?
>
>I could hit them really easy as I install the parts, so it's no hassle
>to do.  Just want to know if I should....
>
>
>
>--
>Dan Devine
>
>--
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