Steve vs Gegory The number of insertions the gold fingers can withstand is directly related to the thickness of the gold plate. I've manufactured boards in the past for computers with only 5- 8 millionths of gold required. However, I've also manufactured them with 30 - 50 millionths. So depending on the manufacturing specs of those boards will tell you how long the gold will last. My recommendation is not to remove the boards every time a pm is done. I would focus on keeping the equipment as clean as possible with scheduled pm's on a regular basis. Every quarter or every six months I would clean the finger contacts. Watching for gold wear from the connectors. John Haman Jr. Process / Product Engineer American Board Companies, Inc ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information. For the technical support contact Dmitriy Sklyar at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.311 ################################################################