Hi,
From re reading, I think I did OK with my previous message yet I wanted to hit some other items, maybe differently.
Without checking all the sources I don't believe there are any industry wide standards. I am sure and know there are industry wide reports that look at things from different perspectives. In my experience with some rather huge companies, storage standards existed and were based on their specifications and experience. 6 months and 1 year were common yet sometimes the 1 year had to do with Financial Inventory Write-Offs(sorry an aside)
As I hope I wrote, this is variable based on "your uncontrolled environment", the PCB surface finish, your soldering process, the product's specifications, and the reliability you need or want to achieve.
You should check on why your PCB Fab dumps at 6 months. If they are dumping at 6 months I BETCHA they have a good reason. Yet you might be a customer for which 6 months is too agressive.
If the soldering at a micro joint level, and the PCB's post soldering condition is equivalent to what it should be or is usually, than there isn't any affect.
One final winding set of thought questions If you had wanted to store PCB's for 3 years what surface finish should you have chosen? Bare Copper, OSP?? By-the-Way Back so Long Ago it is (well you know), this was one of the ways we decided what surface finish to use as the best Cost Trade Off. If you had wanted to store PCB's for 3 years what storage conditions should you have chosen? -Would you move the parts several times and scrape the soldering surfaces, Would you have back up generators. Forget the desicants and the bags unless your really really know what you are doing.
YiEng, MA/NY DDave
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