vendredi 18 juillet 2014

Utilizing Tabletop Reflow Oven To Connect Electric Components

By Coleen Torres


The process of re-flow soldering is utilized to produce a diverse range of electrical components. The most important step in this process is operating the tabletop reflow oven, which is consequently useful for creating DIY components as well. Home or commercial users never have any issues concerning their ovens since its bench top design provides an uncomplicated installation and application.

Surface mounted components are often connected to circuit boards via re-flow soldering. Sometimes, the same technique may be used in connecting circuit boards to through-hole components as well. When connecting any electric component to the desired contact pad, a mixture of solder and flux called solder paste is applied. The connected pieces are heated so that the paste melts and acts as permanent glue. These soldering machines or equipment are used here to ensure that the right temperature heats the entire piece.

Cautious care needs to be taken so that the electrical component isn't overheated or damaged, so these machines are utilized to slowly and progressively melt the solder paste into a mold. There are four gradual stages of temperature the machine goes through in total. The device goes from preheating, soaking, re-flow melting, then cooling.

The longest stage of the soldering machine is the first preheating feature. Between 1 to 3 degrees Celsius rises per second through the entire time. This gradual increase by a static number of degrees Celsius is often referred to as ramp-up rate. The ramp-up rate is an important feature the machine offer so that the intensity of heat on the component is safely progressive rather than abrupt.

The couple minutes after the preheat stage is the thermal soak zone. The oven exposes the combined component to a brief period where the paste is secured and the fluxes are stimulated. There's a restricted range of temperature that is released in order to prevent potential splatter or oxidization. This range not only applies to the maximum heat, but also the minimum limit since the fluxes still need a certain amount of heat to activate.

Peak temperatures are reached in the re-flow zone. Temperatures in the oven goes as high as 20 to 40 degrees Celsius. There is a 20 degree difference in range because the specific degree depends on the lowest heat tolerance of the electric components. In order to bring about any damages, the oven will never heat up higher than 60 degrees.

Apart from the temperature itself, the required amount of time the oven stays in this stage to fully melt the paste relies on the TAL calculations, or time above liquidus. The component must stay in the reflow stage throughout the TAL, or else the paste might not melt fully and produce a dry and frail connection.

The re-flow process ends with the completion of the cooling stage. This is where the oven slowly cools the fully combined component. The steady decrease in heat prevents thermal shock, while also preventing intermetallic formations in the component to occur. Although it is gradual to prohibit shock, a fairly quick cooling rate is needed to create the strongest connection for the component. Compared to the 1 to 3 degree Celsius rate during heating, cooling requires about 4 degrees Celsius per second. As mentioned, extreme care should be taken in all the processes.




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