Folks,

We are getting closer to being very happy with DEK stencil printers of the 265 GSX variety. Problems continue arising
concering autoflex tooling pin breakage.

We are told by the DEK engineering establishment they are seeing very little breakage but ours. All be it, we do run 6
SMT lines front ended with these nearly great machines (maybe not quite MPM calibre), and we see about 5 pins break at the "glans"
interface where the pin is screwed and loctited into the retainer cup/drive piston. We run many different board
configurations with about 12 million placements per month with a great majority being fine pitch requiring corresponding pins.

The break is as if some torsional or side loading force was excercized. Upon further examination, while understanding the
acceleration and air pressure force (10 Bar or about 140 psi? accelerating the pins from 0 to 60 in a nanosecond) we see
evidence of complete separation of the pin from its retainer. The metal seems fatigued with a small tip left remaining as if
it had been subjected to tensile and elongation testing and failed the pull at about 10K psi.

The pins probably are machined on swiss screw equipment. They are necked down just before the threads meet the main shaft
body. This is wherein lies the probable cause. It is possible the pins are fatiguing because of acceleration and some side
loading after acceleration and upon making board contact when the table rises.

The question is: Do any other DEK users have similar problems? If so, how often and why do you think it's happening?

Thanks,

Earl Moon

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