Richard, I don't know what volume of boards and parts you need to store, but check out: http://www.mgc-a.com/rpsystem/mgca.html We do not have any experience with this product, but it looks like it is designed to do what you want to do. I would be concerned about the solderability of BOTH, the boards AND the components! Regards, Charlie B. Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum." <[log in to unmask]>; Please respond to Richard Tilbrook <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] cc: (bcc: Charles Barker/US/I-O INC) Subject: [TN] Long term storage of electronic components Hello again, Our company manufactures PCB's for use in military equipment to conform with ANSI-J001B standard. Every once in a blue moon, a customer asks us to do something that isn't entirely normal, at least in the normal electronics manufacturing world. We can mostly solve the problem or cater for the request, but in this case we need to do more research. We have been asked to store all the components (including bare boards) for a military project spanning 5 years. I had previously been researching into moisture sensitive components, as some of you may know, and was not entirely surprised to be given this project. We will be doing solder tests every 12 months to check for solderability. We will probably be doing a bake every 12 months too. The idea behind such a wide gap between bakes being to avoid as much as possible the formation of intermetallics, which would compromise the quality of manufacture. The storage cabinets we are looking at claim a dryness giving a -15deg.C dewpoint with 5%RH. What temperature did they say? Good question. I would like to store the components at room temperature, unless you reckon that the intermetallics are a major problem, where we might consder researching into something lower. Have any of you out there stored components fo such a long time? What procedures did you follow / intend to follow? How effective were these measures? What do you recommend? Thankyou for reading this e-mail, Best Regards, Richard Tilbrook, Student Engineer ############################################################## TechNet Mail List 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://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ##############################################################