Why SMT Reflow Soldering Oven Cannot Be Avoided By Electronic Assembling Firms

By Harriett Crosby


In the electronic assembly industry, the process of soldering is so significant that it determines the success or failure of a business firm. In order to facilitate this, many companies today use SMT reflow soldering oven. The initials SMT refers to surface mount technology. In this technology, highly technical principles of solder are used to bond electronic components on to the printed circuit board (PCB).

This is one of the machines that get used more often than any other machines in the electrical line of assembly. Before passing over to the oven, the solder paste made of flux, small solder particles and chemical cleaning agents is used to loosely attach the electrical components on to the printed circuit board (PCB) and then sent to the next step.

It involves joining of electrical components on to contact pads with solder paste and heat. In the process of highly controlled heating that take place in the oven, solder melts in the right position and permanently join the electrical components on PCB in the process.

SMT soldering ovens are designed with specific zones, stages which numbers to a total of four. It all starts from the preheat zone. In this stage, the melting temperature of the solvent in paste is set. The time/temperature relationship also known as ramp is determined to help control heating in other zones.

This is followed by thermal soak zone where the PCB and its components are exposed to heating at specific temperature for between 60 to 120 seconds to remove paste volatiles. The third stage is reflow zone. At this stage, PCB gets exposed to the maximum possible temperature that is tolerable by all the electronics on it. This is usually set below the liquidus temperature-the temperature above which the electronics get destroyed. At this point, the surface tension at the joints and the joints is reduced, melting the solder and as such bonding the pads and electronics.

The cooling zone is the last phase where controlled cooling is done to avoid thermal shock. This result of this is permanent bonding of the electrical components to PCB ready for use in electronic market after cleaning and testing.

Most of these ovens use ceramic heaters as the source of heat. The heat flows to the assemblies through hot air using fan (radiation) or just the infrared electromagnetic radiation. As the new models are introduces, the techniques of heat transfers are improved.

SMT reflow soldering oven comes with a number of advantages such as simpler and much faster automated assemblies, very small levels of errors in component mounting, high level of production rate (some capable of placing up to 136,000 components per hour), possible to mount components on both side of the PCB, and electrical efficiency.

The revolution in technology has seen production of better SMT reflow soldering ovens with the latest ones being very efficient in energy consumption, capable of large volume of production thus reducing assembly and handling time and with better quality finished products which all translates to higher profits for the firm and better and safer electronics.




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