Mr. Brunker, I done on/off studies of various plastic materials for the application of squeegee blade for solder paste printing. One purpose of my study was to eliminate stencil wear that you mentioned using a metal blade such as a Transition Automation Permalex metal squeegee, and at the same time to eliminate the printing problem associated with using a polyurethane rubber squeegee. By using these materials, I had good success reducing stencil wear significantly, and bringing printing quality to that of metal squeegee. Is this something you are looking for? One major factor of stencil wear is due to uneven support of boards during printing cycles. Board-Lok support jigs from Transition Automation provide even support and eliminate many printing defects associated with double sided printing. Regards Matthew Park Norsat International Inc. >>> Edward Brunker <[log in to unmask]> March 18, 1999 2:38 am >>> Hi, Has anyone done any studies for the change of depth of solder paste with wear on the stencil. Metal blade squeegees damage the stencil over a period of time, yielding an uneven surface in the form of furrows in the direction of travel. Any uneveness in the stencil is going to hold the blades that much further off the board giving more solder paste. Any comments? Regards Edward Brunker ################################################################ 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 ################################################################