New? In a former life when I was making PCBs (the late 1960s), I used a press which had two Dowtherm tanks, one heated, one at room temp and the platens had serpentines built in. It was very good, as the heating/cooling profile was regulated by proportional controllers which adjusted the flow rates of the Dowtherm. The negative point was that the hot Dowtherm had a relatively short working life, as it was working at its upper temp limit - maybe there are other fluids more suitable today. In reality, this didn't bother us too much: it was a small press (about 40 x 30 cm platens from memory) and was not used much, perhaps 20 days/year, as the demand for m/l PCBs was low in those days (and the prices high!). Again from a failing memory, we replaced 50 l of Dowtherm about twice per year. However, there is one important point to note: make sure that the heating system for the fluid has a very large surface area; Dowtherm does not like ordinary immersion heaters, as the convection is poor and it can be locally overheated and carbonise. Brian Yehuda Weisz - Netvision wrote: > Hello Everyone, > I have come across a new Lamination press "technology" and would like to know a bit more about it. > Several press manufacturers now promote a heating/cooling technology that utilizes a "Thermal fluid" that does all the heat transfer to the heating platens for heating or cooling. This comes instead of the hot oil/electric heating and water cooling and they praise it's efficiency and uniformity. > > What I would like to know is whether anyone out there has looked more closely into this technology and has some insight regarding its pros and cons. > Any input will be greatly appreciated. > > Best regards, > Yehuda > > > Yehuda Weisz > Tel: (972)-3-6342045 > > --------------------------------------------------- > 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 > ----------------------------------------------------- > Cel: (972)-53-556897 > > --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------