Hi ya Steve, If all else fails send them out to an independent machine shop for routing. Might save some money compared to buying a saw especially if your customer/supplier is getting away from sending panelized boards. Hans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hans M. Hinners Materials Engineer (Process & Manufacturing) Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Avionics Production Division Precision Attack/ Radar/Manufacturing Branch Engineering Section 380 Second Street, Suite 104 Building: 640, Mail Stop: LYPME Robins AFB, GA 31098-1638 Voice: (478) 926 - 1970 Fax: (478) 926 - 7164 mailto:[log in to unmask] http://www.robins.af.mil -----Original Message----- From: Stephen R. Gregory [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 9:55 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Depanelizing boards within a "RCH"... Hi all! I got another "opportunity"...we may be getting some boards in here that are in a 2-up panel, that are polyimide, that have to be depanelized. "So whutz yer problem Steve?" Problem is that there are traces that run .015" from the edge of the board...nifty huh? The boards are scored within that dimension, but it was learned that snapping them out isn't a solution, or is using a machine called a "Maestro" (I can't remember the company that makes them), or one from "Radoll Designs", that follow along the score lines to separate the boards. They say that they've tried these tools and that this results in innerlayer separations because of the brittle-ness of the polyimide material...I can understand that. So they say it needs to be cut with a diamond saw, again, I understand that...polyimide laminate is some tough stuff to cut. So I went on a search for diamond saws...got a bunch of hits that have saws to cut ceramic tile, and lapidary tools to cut jewelry stones and such, but nothing that I've found that convinces me that I'll be able to set this board up in and be able to be repeatable within .015"...it seems now I'll have to try and eyeball everything with something like a rip fence. The systems that I've seen also all have oil or water cooling systems for the blades that will douch the boards with liquid from the saws that I don't think is a good idea to do... I know, I know...this is asking a lot...such is my life...but is there anything out there that any of you know of that can do this? For less than $5K? Customer says that they'll be getting away from panelized designs sometime soon, but not soon enough to not have to build panelized boards for a while...guess this stuff is why I have a job... If I figure out how to do this, I'll let ya'll know...if I'm still sane...and can type on my keyboard... -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 ##############################################################