RMV Subject Matter Expertise

The Industry leading Engineers of RMV Technology Group LLC conduct Controlled Ceramic Bonding Tool Tip Resistance Testing for Defense, Space Agency and Disk Drive Assembly sectors. 

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Bob Vermillion, CEO, RMV, sits on the Hand Tools Committee for the ESD Association and is one of the Round Robin labs that performs materials testing for the ESDA including IBM, Seagate, 3M and Wright Patterson Air Force. 

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RMV is the only 3rd  party full-time ESD laboratory on the ESDA Buyers Guide and member of the ESDA  that  does not sell products as part of our business model. 

IPC-TM-650 Test Method

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 This test method evaluates soldering iron tools and can be used to validate a single tool or in a comparison of several tools for use on PWBs.

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IPC-J STD-001E Test Method

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Mil-STD-2000

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  A number of ESD Standard Test Methods are employed to measure charge buildup, resistance of the tool tip assembly and other application specific test procedures for individual customer requirements. Tool tip resistance will vary in resistance dependant upon the manufacturer’s requirements.  For example, in the disk drive industry, magnetic heads can be damaged by less than one volt. RMV utilizes the most advanced instrumentation to measure the sensitivity of the tool tip and provides the customer with a detailed report not only mapping the measurements, but also in an educational format for senior level management review.

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Tool tip stiffness and abrasion resistance will vary depending upon the type of material selected by the Manufacturer. Tool tip materials may produced from a ceramic, metal, tungsten carbide or polymers, whose profiles will varydependant upon stiffness, strength, wear and heat resistance, particulate contamination and cost.  For disk drive applications, the use of ceramic tool tips for pick and place is the standard due to  its hardness and wear resistance. For aerospace and space technology applications, ceramic tool tips continue to be the material of choice. 

The use of polymers (in particular, carbon nanotube polymers are being explored by independent researchers and high volume end users due to its potential for stable electrically conductive properties.  With this new technology becoming a defined area of interest for engineered materials, the mapping of multiwall carbon nanotube polymers (CNT) for static dissipative properties is performed by our team of experts at RMV Technology Group with the most sophisticated instrument and software to determine the area of hotspots for the research community to further develop this technology for  Industry.   

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ANSI/ESD STM 13.1-2000 ANSI/ESD STM 13.1-2000 [WIP for 2008] Electrical Soldering / Desoldering Hand Tools

This standard test method provides electric soldering/desoldering hand tool test methods for measuring the electrical leakage and tip to ground reference point resistance and provides parameters for EOS safe soldering operation.

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