# Optical Forums > Optical and Ophthalmic Equipment >  Alloy loss in surfacing

## loudog219

Hello everyone,

I work in a high volume lab in which we surface about 2,000 jobs a day. We have recently been experiencing issues with alloy shortages. We use a reclaim tank to recycle our alloy but keep running up short on alloy more frequently than normal. Is this something any of you have experienced in the past? Any hints on where to look in our operation or where in our recycle process we might be losing alloy. We use optotech auto blockers and HSC smart generators. Thanks!

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## PRECISIONLAB

Have there been any changes in personnel @ deblock or reclaim station? Perhaps monitoring procedures might reveal where alloy lose is occurring. I had an employee completely drain reclaim tank with alloy into sink. Luckily the majority of the alloy solidified in the U part of the pipes. With the volume you run, the slightest discard of small pieces can add up. Also as alloy ages and becomes contaminated, you start to notice slag form which when skimmed/removed can obviously deplete alloy volume.

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## loudog219

> Have there been any changes in personnel @ deblock or reclaim station? Perhaps monitoring procedures might reveal where alloy lose is occurring. I had an employee completely drain reclaim tank with alloy into sink. Luckily the majority of the alloy solidified in the U part of the pipes. With the volume you run, the slightest discard of small pieces can add up. Also as alloy ages and becomes contaminated, you start to notice slag form which when skimmed/removed can obviously deplete alloy volume.


Thanks for your response. The people who run our autoblockers also run the reclaim station and they are pretty tenured and reliable folks. I will have to look into contamination a bit more. We currently do not wash our chucks but place them in the reclaim tank with the alloy attached still. Once the alloy melts off we just recirculate the chucks back into operation, I wonder if that could be a contributing factor. With blocking alloy, do you know what specifically can cause significant increases in the creation of slag and/or dross.

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## lensmanmd

I would check for leaks.  You may find a cash cow of alloy inside your blocker.  

I’m not familiar with auto blockers, but the tank on our PRA had a small crack in it.  We found about 40lbs of alloy inside when we replaced the tank.

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