Brad, The answer (of course) is no. I want the airplane to have nice, safe stuff in it. Just like I want the surgical equipment to be safe, just like I want the car to be safe...Big, serious stuff requires big, serious consideration.
For the money that you've allotted to purchasing such a system, here's my recommendation. Call the various vendors; Pace, Hakko, etc and have them send a rep your way to show you what they have, ie, you give them the nickel/dime tour, tell them to go home a figure, then have them back after they have a week to consider and sit down for a quick meeting to discuss their recommendations... with your production guy in-tow for both...Can you delegate any of the "analysis" to subordinates? Now, If time has told me anything about you, I predict that you have about as much time as I do (in all likelihood) for screwing around with vendors, ie, about 5 minutes if I look at my schedule (lol), but regardless of practicality, allot yourself an hour to each (separate times of course) and let them fight each other (separately) after you give them a quick tour and a clear definition of your needs, and of course after they complete their presentations. As you said, you build avionics equipment. This is no small shit... (Boeing 787 projects by any chance?). And as for the purchase price, five-digit price tags will get you some fair treatment by the mfgs, or at least _Should_... In my estimation,(and I'm prolly not saying anything you don't already know) you'll end up saving yourself significant time downstream if you spend a little more time than you want to upstream. And... Not to detract from what we've all shared here, but in light of the clear need at N.A.T. for a professional-grade rework station, I recommend you get professional advise, and that's best gotten from the mfg's themselves, with a little nudge from being honest with them up front and letting them know that you are and will be working with their competitors until you have made a choice of whom you will hand you hard-earned >$50000 smackers. Have a great weekend, and let us know what happens, Andrew >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brad Velander >Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 4:32 PM >To: Protel EDA Discussion List >Subject: Re: [PEDA] Hot Air reflow stations. > >No Andrew, > You have hit the nail on the head! > > Yes a lot of those simpler (cheaper?) stations may work >with a sufficient degree of user skill and experience. Our >products are all for aviation use, do you want to fly in a >plane where the avionics equipment was possibly not fully 100% >compliant with the best assembly/rework practices, where some >components may have been seriously overcooked during rework? >We don't want to be burning any more boards than we have to in >rework, they are far too expensive at that point and we build >smaller batches (5 - 25, possibly 50pcs typically). > > I also just really wondered about the SMD ICs with >central tabs being reworkable by some of the equipment/methods >mentioned with the simpler tools. How to get the heat to that >TAB pad without burning the rest of the board. Then >resoldering the replacement part in afterwards. > > We are looking for a serious rework station but just >don't want to pay almost as much as we might pay for full >blown SMT production line equipment. It would not necessarily >be for BGA reworking but by the time you get a reasonably good >system it probably will do a lot of BGA rework as well. > >Sincerely, >Brad Velander >Senior PCB Designer >Northern Airborne Technology >#14 - 1925 Kirschner Road, >Kelowna, BC, V1Y 4N7. >tel (250) 763-2232 ext. 225 >fax (250) 762-3374 > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 9:39 AM >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [PEDA] Hot Air reflow stations. > > >Brad, > >I think you've hit the nail on the head...When I first began >incorporating SMT components to my designs, (NASA GRC, circa >1997/8/9) I also bought one of these ~1K rework stations, (A >Hakko as I recall), but then I had to come up with a >magnifier, fixturing: (PCB holders, microtranslation stages, >component placement fixtures, etc.), a better way to control >temperature and airflow...I think these gizmoes are fine for a >compact, low-cost, desktop engineering station, ie, low count >prototyping on relatively insubstantial components, but I >wonder if they're not insufficient for serious work (by >serious, I mean no disrespect to anyone, but assembling a >board using multiple high-pin-count component using what is >essentialy a hobbyist tool is not very sensible when working >on say, a NASA "flight" board or military >contracts...) > > >____________________________________________________________ >You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum > >To Post messages: >mailto:[email protected] > >Unsubscribe and Other Options: >http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com > >Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): >http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > >Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): >http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > This e-mail transmission and its attachments may contain information from Avtron Manufacturing, Inc. that is proprietary, privileged and/or confidential and is intended exclusively for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. 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