I've evaluated them for high volume production, and calculated the quantity as being a pallet at every build station, and spaced at line rate throughout the line and solder machine. Then put a .5 hour of pallets at load and unload (so the operator didn't have to get up and down every 5 minutes). No .5 hour hold was envisioned if the line had (or would have) a pallet return conveyor. I also added 10% extra for spares so we wouldn't shut down while repairing a pallet. Quantity depends upon line length, line rate and conveyor issues. ------------- Original Text From: C=US/A=INTERNET/DDA=ID/TechNet(a)IPC.ORG, on 4/29/98 11:29 PM: Hi Ken! I've not done a formal study, but I've always recommended the number of wave fixtures based on what kind of wave machines I have, and how many fixtures will fit inside the machine while waving them. For instance; with a Electrovert Ultrapak and normal sized board (not a 18" X 20" monster) I would figure 5 in the machine, 1 being unloaded, 2 already unloaded and cooling down, 1 getting ready to go into the machine, and 1 getting loaded up to be put into the machine...so 10 fixtures total. It never made any difference what the yearly quantity was, just as long as it was going to be an ongoing thing I would always recommend 10 fixtures...we would never be waiting on a fixture while waving that way. If the quantity was going to be a lot more and we were using another wave machine, I would double the quantity...this is to prevent bottle-necks... Now if the customer balked at paying for 10 fixtures and the quantity was low, but ongoing, I'd let the production manager (or someone at that level) make the call to go with less than 10...after all, it's gonna slow down the thru-put outta wave when you hafta wait on boards to finish waving before you get a fixture to put the next board into... So the short answer is, it depends on how many fixtures you can cram in the wave...I know it's not scientific, but everytime I've had to explain why I need 10 fixtures to a customer, they've understood... -Steve Gregory- ################################################################ 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 ################################################################ ################################################################ 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 ################################################################