The stencil time is the amount of time a solder paste is allowed to remain on the stencil. It does not matter whether the paste is moved (printed) during this time or not. By placing a larger amount of fresh paste on the stencil, the stencil time is restarted. The information on the permissible stencil time of a paste can be found in the technical data sheet of a solder paste.

Usual stencil times for solder pastes are 8 ... 48 h.