How to store moisture sensitive SMD-ICs in a decent and economic way ? On delivery some SMD-IC's are packed carefully in drypacks with silica gel and humidity indicator card. The supplier states that the parts after unpacking have to be used in a more or less rapid way - sometimes even within hours. However, the problem shows when not all parts are used at once so some of them have to be stored for a while. The supplier states that the problem can be overcome by baking the parts prior to reflow soldering. But baking takes time and may damage the solderability. So I would prefer to store the unpacked not-yet-to-use parts in a moisture controlled environment. We look at nitrogen storage - knowing the costs of implementing and running the thing. Is there a way to keep the nitrogen usage at a low level ? Or should we go for some form of "dry air environment" ? ... Who builds such things ? ... At what costs ? Or perhaps we could store parts in reusable dryboxes ? Best regards Svend ################################################################ 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 technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################