Earl, We bought the SRT 1000 after looking at after looking at Conceptronics, Air-Vac & SRT units. While all seem capable of handling the job, the ease of use of the SRT was one of the factors we liked. From an operator standpoint, it's pretty straight forward. At the time we looked last year, both Conceptronics and Air-Vac had interfaces that we felt were more daunting for our typical operator. No problem for the engineer setting up profiles, but we don't use them to run the machine <g>. We also talked to some heavy users of the equipment and got very positive feedback on the SRT from Intel, HP & Silicon Graphics among others. Of course these were names supplied by SRT so I'd expect them to be favorable. However in almost 1 year of use I'd have to concur. Regarding the pickup tube, SRT's claimed accuracy and repeatability is very good, and we haven't had reason to question it. Placements are dead on as far as we can tell. While the tube probably is susceptible to damage, the only time anyone should be handling it, or even near it when extended is when doing maintenance. In terms of operation, I actually prefer the convection pre-heat on the SRT to the IR pre-heat used by Conceptronics, although both vendors have reasons their's is better. With the number of thermocouples available, we can pretty accurately reproduce profiles identical to what we'd want to see in our ovens. Programming has been pretty straight forward, although as you note, you do have to edit program files manually. From what I recall, both Conceptronics & Air-Vac required something similar. Shouldn't be a problem for your engineer. Regards, Rick Thompson > -----Original Message----- > From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] > Sent: Thursday, January 21, 1999 6:34 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [TN] Solder fountain devices and BGA/Fine pitch repair/rework > stations > > > Hello, > > I will be evaluating and qualifying two equipment types. The > first is a fountain soldering > device. I need practical advice on all the stuff you guys and > gals know about as good, bad, > ugly, best applications, setup, limitations, and all the > rest. I've never used one of these > things and would appreciate any experienced input. > > I am inheriting an SRT 1000 BGA/Fine pitch rework/repair > station. So far it looks straight > forward and easy to program and operate. I do question having > to edit INI files to set some > parameters for board and component types, and sequences, etc. > Additionally, the very long > removal and replacement arm/rod/tube seems very vulnerable > and I can't help wondering about > repeatabillity let alone initial accuracy though, from what > I've seen so far, no worries? Any > experienced input concerning operations, do's, dont's, > capabilities, limitations, etc. also > would be appreciated. > > I've used both the big Conceptronic and Pace types. They both > work well though I tend to lean > toward the Pace as it is simpler and easier to program with > better placement features. I do > like the Conceptronic bottom side "pre-heaters" and the SRT > heaters work well. Still, I've > only been introduced to the SRT and would like objective > comparisons and information as in > the above. > > Thanks everyone, > > Earl Moon > > ################################################################ > 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 ################################################################