Soldering Techniques

We might have heard about soldering techniques used by manufacturers to place/solder components on a bare PCB. For an experienced guy, these techniques are familiar but for a fresher these all look like hard stuff which add to the additional burden of learning. The two most terminologies you hear from manufacturing industry are wave soldering and re-flow soldering. If PCB is not so complex and if you are getting your PCB s soldered at your local manufacturing locations you may not be hearing more about re-flow soldering. Let us look at the major differences between these two techniques.

Wave soldering:

Wave soldering is used to solder both through hole and SMD also. But this technique may not be suitable for most of the SMD components. Even in this era of surface mount technology, there are many applications which demand through hole components. So, wave soldering is a popularly used technique.

Reflow soldering:

Reflow soldering is mainly used for surface mount components. Even the through hole component soldering can be done with this technology. In this soldering technique, a solder paste is added to the PCB to glue the components upon which is the PCB is exposed to a controlled temperature environment. Check the datasheets before selecting the component and check your manufacturing facilities in parallel to give a manufacturing guideline for maximum reflow temperature to be used. Reflow machines can be of infrared type or conventional type.

What are the latest technologies?

Now-a-days embedded market is growing faster enabling the technology to be used at every step. SMT reflow machines are having lots of inventions incorporated and are coming up with latest technologies. some of the important observations are:

• Graphical view of the temperature using a display attached 
• Touch based screens for control activities
• Minute temperature adjustment 
• Complete process level data logging
• Advanced cooling strategies
• Efficient flux distribution techniques
• Tracking the PCB from insertion to completion
• Power consumption reduction in latest machines
• Alarms for security
• Remote control

What are the advantages of latest innovations?

• Less maintenance costs
• Exceptional thermal performance
• Labour reduction
• Automation
• Quick turnout and hence high throughput
• Controlled environment
• Less chance of failures
• Report generation at every step