Advantages of hot bar are localized heating, leads held in place and low cost. Ground planes can be an issue since they suck a lot of heat. Look for good ramp control of heat profile. Hot bar works best with solder pre-forms or pre-reflowed solder on pads. Raw paste is difficult to relow consistantly. Hope this helps. I spent 13 years with Hughes/Palomar, contact me if you need more detail. Mike. --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e 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 or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------