Plato lead cutters will give you the precision of a high-end soldering tool for the price of a disposable shear cutter. Assemblers love the ergonomics, effortless design, shearing action, comfort, and safety of a Plato lead cutter.
Plato lead cutters use the shear cutting method, which requires 50% less operator effort and extends cutting life. The thin profile design is perfect for hard-to-reach areas in electronic assembly. Plato cutter handles are cushioned for comfort all day and automatically spring back to their original position after each use.
Plato lead cutters 175 and 175LX come with a lead catcher, which holds onto trimmed lead until the shear is opened. This prevents leads from flying off, which can lead to eye injury or contaminate the assembly.
Needle bottles are ideal for precisely controlled flux applications. Two different needle sizes are available: 0.25mm for low viscosity no-clean and aqueous fluxes and 0.50mm for higher viscosity rosin-based fluxes. Each bottle is available in standard plastic or with optional ESD-safe cover.
Plato sponges are an effective and fast way to clean a tip. The cellulose sponge material is made of natural wood pulp, so it will not melt and damage the soldering tip like a synthetic sponge would. They come with different holes or slits to make it even faster and easier, and to avoid flinging molten solder.
Plato Brass Tip Cleaner is fast and easy to use, doesn’t require saturating with water, and doesn’t thermally shock the soldering tip.
Here are some other things you can do to protect yourself from counterfeit cutters: 1) Buy directly from www.techspray.com, 2) Buy from one of our certified distributors: https://www.techspray.com/distributors?country=US, and 3) Purchase 170LX, which we have not seen counterfeited yet. Same basic cutter with a premium handle: https://www.techspray.com/platoshear-ergonomic-cutter-4.
Techspray does not offer replacement, only complete flux bottles. The needles are standard parts that are commonly used for automatic dispensing systems. You can find compatible needles with distributors like Grainger. They are 1" stainless steel needles, 21 guage for FD-2 and SF-2, and 26 guage for FD-21 and SF-1.
The lifetime of a Plato 170 cutter is dependent on a number of variables, including the thickness of the wire or lead and the amount of force used in the cutting process. The spring and hinge mechanism is tested and rated for 1 million cuts, but that’s just opening and closing. The life will be much short when actually cutting something. For maximum life on a high volume assembly line, consider the Plato Extra-Strong Cutter (part #170S), which has a more robust rivet and blades. It can cut 50% thicker gauge wire or leads, and will last longer in a production environment.