Hi John, > I cannot seem to find this thread maybe our server went down - However, you > can of course use different thermode materials such as ceramic Thermodes > with built in heater/sensor systems, the ideal being good heat conductivity with > very low mass so you can heat the solder and cool down to solidus while > still under Z axis clamping pressure. I think you may be using a titanium > thermode? > A: My hotbar was made of a sandwich of stainless steel, aluminum, and copper [this is used for cookware] with the aluminum and copper removed at the U-shaped contact area. the beauty of this transverse hotbar concept is that the hotbar can be made any length without suffering temperature nonumiformities. Werner --------------------------------------------------- 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 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------