[labnetwork] Precious Metal Reclaim

[John Shott]

Michael:

While I can't tell you exactly what their pricing/reimbursement 
algorithm is, we've been using M & K Recovery Group in Andover, MA for 
reclaim of deposited metal on a number of our evaporator planetaries, 
shields, etc.  In general, what we send them has a mix of metals with 
gold and platinum being the subjects of reclaim.  Because of that, it's 
hard for us to know the gold/platinum content of what we send them, so 
we are at their mercy to tell us what they recovered.

We really didn't do any comparison shopping before choosing them ... 
although some reclaim is clearly better than no reclaim.

For others doing reclaim, I'd be curious to know what financial method 
you have for dealing with this.  Our accounting/financial folks seem to 
have no means of accommodating something that was going to result in net 
money returned to us.  As a result, we run a credit at M & K which we 
periodically "cash in" in gold pellets or equivalent.

Although we haven't used them, it appears as if Lesker also does reclaim 
and they even quote reclaim efficiency for various type of 
materials/objects including sputtering targets, evaporation shields, 
etc.  Has anyone used them?

http://www.lesker.com/newweb/deposition_materials/depositionmaterials_reclaim_2.cfm?pgid=0#

Good luck,

John


> Dearest Colleagues,
>
> I was wondering if you can recommend your best sources for precious metal reclaim.  We have solid gold sputtering targets that need to be recast.  With margins so tight, we need the best possible reclaim rates.
>
> Gratefully,
>
> Dr. Michael Khbeis