Combo hot air and bench top fire station

[Joebeazelman]

I stumbled upon this hot air station:

https://www.atten.com/product/st_862d_e_high_power_hot_air_station_with_fault_alarm_function

It appears to be a 2-in-1 hot air station and fire station complete with hot air/fire hose. Who needs the fire department when you can have your very own right on your bench! They also plan to release a police station model with a blue siren. The hot air wand turns into a baton for arresting suspected burglars from walking away with your BGA during a reball. 

[Ian.M]

*Someone* at Atten must have set their bench on fire with its predecessor nonalarm station . . .

[tom66]

I would take a guess this is to improve QC, you might have a technician whose only job is to heat up some heatshrink mindlessly waving the wand over heatshrink one part at a time, not realising the gun isn't hot any more.  So the supervisor can see the alarm siren blaring and sort the issue out.

I mean if you pay peanuts you get monkeys after all.

[thm_w]

"Fault Alarm  Function，the warning light will sound and flash to indicate when there is a fault."

Maybe its more for automated or robotic setups? Someone could use the hot air in a cheap production line and run it at 100% duty cycle. So you'd know when the heater element fails after a few months/years and shut down the line as soon as you see it.

I can't quite make out the lettering on the terminal strip on the back, there may be more functions there that would tell us more.

[SiliconWizard]

I agree it looks funky, but this is no fire station. Just a warning light. Not unusual on industrial equipment, just not sure it's really that useful on something that can't be operated other than manually. Those big lights are made for being seen from a long distance.
(This kind of lights are usual on equipment that can operate automatically.)

[u666sa]

So it is hooked up to 24 volts and ground, so it will flash when that thing is on. 

I'm not sure about this one. 

[coppercone2]

its a good idea, the hot air station with a button on the handle piece have a hair trigger pushbutton. If you set it down on the bench for a sec and get up, even rolling the tool over will trigger it. weller....

the one you place back on the magnet to turn off are also liable for getting stuck and stuff, especially if sticky from spilled flux that caught some wire scraps.

IMO these things are like 10x more hazardous then a soldering iron for starting fires.