>> A friend got burned by poor plating a long time ago, and on his protos,
>> insists on filling the vias with solder- just in case the plating was
>> poor. Valid, but I haven't seen a bad via on my boards in years- if the
>> vias are that bad, there probably are other problems.
>
>That would be either a very long time ago while the process was getting we=
ll sorted, or it was a manufacturer just setting up PTH process, and not ye=
t familiar with the process control requirements. If one has a problem with=
 via quality these days then the manufacturer should be shouted at very lou=
dly.

You may want to solder-fill vias to help in high current or high thermal lo=
ad situations, on
flow-soldered PCBs,  although relying on it would probably mean you'd want =
to inspect to make sure
they got filled.

--=20
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