Hi Lou:
Graham Collins provided some great advice.  I can think of only one more
thing to add and that is the size of the pot.  We have a large pot, 1500 lb
+, Dover Soltec.  Our run rates and the amount of solder added to keep the
pot at a certain level pretty much keeps the contamination level below the
limits.  We still do solder analysis but not as often as with the older
Hollis machine which was a 650 lb pot.  Graham is right about one thing to
watch carefully and that is if you expose the pot to a lot of gold, you may
want to check a little more often than twice a year.  If you have a smaller
pot, you may want to reconsider the twice a year scenario.  Your SPC data
will tell you how long you can go before changing the pot.
Our old Hollis with a 650 pound pot required us, at our run rates, to change
the pot every 6 weeks.  The new Soltec with a pot, that I actually think is
1750 lbs, with auto solder feed, was more efficient and less costly to
maintain.  The only time we emptied the pot was to work a pump issue which
has been very few times.  As a matter of fact I think we only dumped the
solder once and that was for a pump or baffle upgrade.  Anyhow hope this
helps a little.

Ron Hollandsworth
ITT

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