Lou, I agree with you. I don't deal with wave soldering, but with HASL, and I know from experience that a LOT can happen to solder composition in a few months, much less six, and I would guess that that's probably just as true with wave solder. I would stick with what you're doing. Our solder supplier does the monthly analysis for us at no charge (I suppose it's included in the price of the solder). Yours should too. Tim Reeves ECD -----Original Message----- From: Lou Hart [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 6:54 AM Subject: Wave solder pot analysis TechNetters, I'd appreciate comments on contaminant analysis of a wave solder pot. We had been sending a sample out for analysis (type "C" I think it is, by the mil spec) once per month. Now the solder supplier is telling me that once every six months is more than enough. I've been taking the contaminant data and plotting Q charts (for short-run SPC the modern way, as I've been mentioning in this forum) with the monthly data. What has been your practice and recommendation? At the moment, it is hard for me to feel comfortable with a twice-yearly analysis of what seems to me to be an important material in our manufacturing process. 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------