A message was posted earlier this month concerning a company reworking Metcal soldering system tips. It is very difficult to put a new tip on a cartridge without stressing the heater element and so the life expectancy and reliability of a reworked cartridge does not compare with that of a brand new one. We have Metcal systems throughout our factory and if you train your operators to look after the cartridges (as other contributors to the debate have already pointed out) the cost is not significant. In many ways it is better that an operator has to replace a Metcal cartridge that fails definitively, than they carry on using a conventional soldering tool tip far beyond the time when they should have been thrown away. More importantly, I have it on good authority (from a friend who works at Metcal) that re-tipping their cartridges is a very bad idea indeed. Firstly, Metcal themselves do not re-tip their cartridges nor do they encourage this. It is important to note that the company doing this are not part of the OK/Metcal group (even though they may act as sales reps for their product) and is currently subject to a patent violation action brought against them by Metcal and users of their service could in theory be subject to a collaboration charge. Nigel Burtt Production Engineering Manager Dolby - European HQ Email: [log in to unmask] Tel: 01793 842132 Fax: 01793 842101 ################################################################ 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's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################ ################################################################ 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's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################