What is a Reflow Soldering Oven?
A reflow soldering machine is an oven used to solder components on a PCB. This process is usually used to solder SMT components on to a board. However, it can also be used to solder Thru-Hole components. In the case of SMT components, Solder is placed on the PCBs and the components are then placed on the boards. The boards are then passed through a reflow oven where the solder solidifies to make the required connections on the board. For thru-hold components, the solder paste is applied in the through-hole by using the specialized stencil. The reflow soldering used to solder the through-hole components by using solder paste in a convection oven is known as intrusive soldering.
The reflow soldering process has four-stages - preheat, soak, reflow and the cooling stage. In the preheat stage, the temperature of the PCB rises gradually, usually 2ºC/second. Because sudden heating can cause component damage, and solder splatter which can result in solder balls during reflow. At the end of the preheat stage, the board enters the soak stage, where the temperature is raised to the required temperature before entering the reflow stage. Usually, the soak stage usually takes 60 to 120 seconds.
Then board then enters the reflow stage, where the temperature is sufficient to reflow (melt) the solder paste in to a liquid state. Now, the surface tension of the molten solder helps centers the electronic components on its pads. The reflow stage usualy lasts for 30 to 60 seconds. Then, the board enters the cooling stage, where the cooling is carried out at the rate of 2 to 4ºC/second. This is where the solder solidifies to make the required connection.
Key Specs of reflow soldering equipment:
Control Type: Represents the type of control used in the machine. Usually, the control type comes PLC with a touch screen feature.
Max PCB width: Represents the maximum PCB width that can be handled by the machine in mm.
Heat Type: Represents the type of method used in the heating process. Air convection and infrared heating methods are most common. Some machines use both methods whereas others might just use one.
Heating zones: Represents the number of upper and bottom heating zones available in the machine.
Heating zone Length: It is the length of the heating zone in the machine.
Cooling method: Represents the type of cooling used. Usually air cooling is used.
Cooling zones: Represents the number of upper and bottom cooling zones available in the machine.
Temp Range: Represents the maximum operating temperature of the reflow oven in degree Celsius.
Temp accuracy: Represents the accuracy of temperature in each zone of the oven. Usually, the temperature accuracy is ± 1degree c, which means the temperature variation limit is ± 1degree c.
Temperature control precision: PID (Proportional-Integrative-Derivative) controller is used to control the precision level of temperature.
Conveyor Direction: Represents the direction of the conveyor belt in the reflow process.
Conveyor speed: Represents the speed of the conveyor belt.
Conveyor height: Represents the height of the conveyor belt from the ground.
Overall Dimension: Represents the dimension of machine and is measured in L mm x W mm x H mm.
PCB Directory has listed reflow soldering equipment from the leading manufacturers in the industry and made it easy for users to find these machines based on their requirement. Users can specify the temperature range required, PCB Width, heating zones, cooling zones and other parameters to find equipment that meets their requirement. They can then view equipment specifications, download spec sheets and get a quote. Quotes requested are routed to manufacturer of the reflow soldering oven.
