I suppose a concern here is small batch size, and VPR does bring a certain amount of piece of mind with respect to uniform heating which I suppose you are equating to small delta T. This is a two way street, The amount of heat you are going to stuff into your assemblies will also be quite large, be interesting to know if any one has any numbers for internal temperatures on devices VPR in FC71 equivalents..... Personally I think that if you have a 10 zone convection machine this should be well able to reflow Sn/Ag soldered aeemblies. If you haven't already, before you blow a few $0000 on VPR why not invest a few $00 on a data profiler and see what your max thermal excursions really are? Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen R. Gregory <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 7:39 PM Subject: [TN] Vapor Phase reflow chemicals and equipment.. Hi ya'll! I got some general questions about vapor phase reflow. I went back and looked at all the responses to Jason Gregory's (no relation...that I know of anyway) question about vapor phase reflow. We may get some business that will require it. It's for oil well downhole boards that will be soldered with a SN96/AG04 solderpaste. I've got a 10-zone Conceptronics oven that I can create a profile that will reflow the paste, but I don't think it will do it in a manner that won't cook the parts. With vapor phase, you can get the board down in the vapor, reflow the solder, and get it back out before the parts fry... The liquidous for the SN96/AG 04 is somewhere between 221º - 229º C., so the regular Fluorinert (FC-70) won't work as it's boiling point is 215º C. I checked on the FC-71 and it's boiling point is 253º C....so that looks like the one I should use. Problem is, don't know where to get it. I've called 3-M and left a message, but haven't got a call back yet... This all is just in the planning stages now...we haven't got the business yet. But I'm being asked what it will take for us to have vapor phase capabilitiy. I've been web searching and mostly what I've found on the NET is used equipment, Centech, HTI, Baron Blakeslee....who makes new vapor phase equipment now? Also, what kind of ball-park figures will we need to spend for a decent vapor phase unit? If anybody knows, what kind of money (per gallon) are we talking about for FC-71? There will also be a secondary chemical that we'll need to use to contain the FC-71 won't there? Or has the equipment technology advanced enough so a secondary chemical isn't needed? I rememember using freon the last time I worked with a vapor phase unit. As usual, thanks a lot! -Steve Gregory- ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ############################################################## ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ##############################################################