Selective soldering

Does anyone out there have hands on experience of selective soldering. Either masking or miniwave type. I am looking for pointers with regard to equipment selection and known process problems/ limitations

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| Does anyone out there have hands on experience of selective soldering. Either masking or miniwave type. I am looking for pointers with regard to equipment selection and known process problems/ limitations |

Charles:

Take a look at Exselect website: www.exselect.com Sure that they can provide you with the technical information you are seeking.

Wayne

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Charles,

I am using an Air-Vac PCBRM12 to selectively solder a 96 pin thru-hole connector onto an otherwise all SMT board. Cost is $8.6K plus about $300 per flow well (nozzle.) Went from a 6 minute cycle to hand solder the connector to 15 seconds on the mini-wave. Took all of 3 months to pay for itself. The machine is very well built and has controls for the process parameters. Once you establish the parameters all the operator does is place the board in the supports and hit the foot switch. By the way, that is one of the other things the Air-Vac has going for it - the supports that hold the board in position are much more substantial than some of the lesser priced machines on the market. Like any other flow solder machine, keep it clean and you should have no problems. Air-Vac's number is 203-888-9900.

Bob

| Does anyone out there have hands on experience of selective soldering. Either masking or miniwave type. I am looking for pointers with regard to equipment selection and known process problems/ limitations |

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| Does anyone out there have hands on experience of selective soldering. Either masking or miniwave type. I am looking for pointers with regard to equipment selection and known process problems/ limitations | Charles,

I've used both miniwave and selective solder fixtures. My personal preference is selective soldering fixtures over the regular solder wave. I like it better because:

1) The regular solder wave is much more repeatable 2) The regular solder wave is less operator dependent than a miniwave 3) The miniwave only heats the board locally and often has no preheat. If your component is near the edge of the board, htis is not a big concer, but if it is towards the middle, the rapid heating causes localized expansion, but the only available direction is Z. You can do some nice damage this way. 4) The regular solder wave has nice peel off for debridging. The miniwave tends to bridge more, depending on the component.

If you're looking for selective solder fixture vendors, I use MB Manufacturing (973)586-2988 and EMC (215) 340-0650.

Chrys

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