Hi Lou, I don't have any experience using wire as a standoff, and I concur with Mike in his response, it would seem a bit loosy-goosy to me. What I have done in a past life is to order parts with the leads kinked. Typically it does not add much to the piece part price and it works well with automated as well as manual insertion operations. It provides a standoff as well as keeping the parts snug in the board while processing. Hope this helps. Richard At 06:21 PM 6/20/01 -0400, you wrote: >TechNetters, our manufacturing people have asked me if it is OK to use >spacers to assure proper height of radial leaded components. They have >been using short wire segments as temporary standoffs, which are removed >after wave solder. The spacers would stay in place, so the customer would >see them. I've contacted the customer's engineering for guidance, but >wanted to get TechNet input about the removable wires vs. leave-in-place >spacers. Thanks for any comments. Lou Hart --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send the following message: SET Technet NOMAIL Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------