Hi Kathy! Ya' know, I've always kinda' cringed when I hear what it costs to measure solder paste height with some of these systems. But there's one system that I just bought, that I think falls more in line with what I consider to be a reasonable cost to measure solderpaste height with, it's called a SMarT Measure. It's a depth measuring microscope that operates in the same fashion as a Vision Engineering unit does. The unit I bought is the third one I've purchased, I've bought two others when I was with other companies. The unit costs a whopping $1,600 ! A little different than $34,000 huh? It's resolution is plus or minus .05-mil (.001mm) just as good as the big buck units. Sure, it don't have all the bells, whistles, and lasers, but it'll give you a way to measure your paste deposition that won't break the bank. You can buy 5 of these and still have money left over to get you that fancy-smancy AOI system you want...(GRIN) Check it out if ya' want, call (408) 562-2033 and tell them you're intrested in the Smart Measure Optical Z-Axis measurement system, they'll give you all the info you need. If you want, I have all the literature and I'll FAX it to ya' if you want to give me your number. -Steve Gregory- Practical Manufacturing Technologies (408) 734-2208 Ext.-8804 (408) 734-2244 FAX ################################################################ 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 ################################################################