Wave soldering

technology prevails (certain major appliances).

1 Wave solder process

A simple wave soldering machine.

There are many types of wave solder machines; however,

the basic components and principles of these machines
are the same. The basic equipment used during the process is a conveyor that moves the PCB through the dierent zones, a pan of solder used in the soldering process,
a pump that produces the actual wave, the sprayer for the
ux and the preheating pad. The solder is usually a mixture of metals. A typical solder has the chemical makeup
of 50% tin, 49.5% lead, and 0.5% antimony.[1]

Selective soldering machine

Wave soldering is a bulk soldering process used in the

manufacture of printed circuit boards. The circuit board
is passed over a pan of molten solder in which a pump
produces an upwelling of solder that looks like a standing
wave. As the circuit board makes contact with this wave,
the components become soldered to the board. Wave soldering is used for both through-hole printed circuit assemblies, and surface mount. In the latter case, the components are glued onto the surface of a printed circuit
board (PCB) by placement equipment, before being run
through the molten solder wave.

2 Fluxing
Flux in the wave soldering process has a primary and a
secondary objective. The primary objective is to clean
the components that are to be soldered, principally any
oxide layers that may have formed.[2] There are two types
of ux, corrosive and noncorrosive. Noncorrosive ux
requires precleaning and is used when low acidity is required. Corrosive ux is quick and requires little precleaning, but has a higher acidity.[3]

As through-hole components have been largely replaced

by surface mount components, wave soldering has been
supplanted by reow soldering methods in many largescale electronics applications. However, there is still 3 Preheating
signicant wave soldering where surface-mount technology (SMT) is not suitable (e.g., large power devices and Preheating helps to accelerate the soldering process and
high pin count connectors), or where simple through-hole to prevent thermal shock.[4]
1

11 FURTHER READING

Cleaning

through the process and can measure the temperature prole,along with contact times,wave parallelism and wave
Some types of ux, called no-clean uxes, do not re- heights. These xture combined with analysis software
quire cleaning; their residues are benign after the sol- allows the production engineer to establish and then condering process.[5] Typically no-clean uxes are especially trol the wave solder process.
sensitive to process conditions, which may make them
undesirable in some applications.[5] Other kinds of ux,
however, require a cleaning stage, in which the PCB is 9 See also
washed with solvents and/or deionized water to remove
ux residue.
Dip soldering
Thermal proling

Finish and quality

Quality depends on proper temperatures when heating

and on properly treated surfaces.

Solder types

Dierent combinations of tin, lead and other metals are

used to create solder. The combinations used depend on
the desired properties. The most popular combination is
63% tin, 37% lead. This combination is strong, has a
low melting range, and melts and sets quickly. Higher
tin compositions gives the solder higher corrosion resistances, but raises the melting point. Another common
composition is 11% tin, 37% lead, 42% bismuth, and
10% cadmium. This combination has a low melting point
and is useful for soldering components that are sensitive
to heat.[6]

Eects of cooling rate

It is important that the PCBs be allowed to cool at a reasonable rate. If they are cooled too fast, then the PCB can
become warped and the solder can be compromised. On
the other hand, if the PCB is allowed to cool too slowly,
then the PCB can become brittle and some components
may be damaged by heat. The PCB should be cooled
by either a ne water spray or air cooled to decrease the
amount of damage to the board.[7]

Thermal proling

Thermal proling is the act of measuring several points

on a circuit board to determine the thermal excursion it
takes through the soldering process. In the electronics
manufacturing industry, SPC (Statistical Process Control) helps determine if the process is in control, measured against the reow parameters dened by the soldering technologies and component requirements.[8] Products like the Solderstar WaveShuttle and the Optiminer
have been developed special xtures which are passed

Solder mask

10 References
[1] Robert H. Todd, Dell K. Allen, Leo Alting (1994).
Manufacturing Processes Reference Guide. p. 393.
[2] http://www.ipctraining.org/dvd/47c/script.pdf
[3] Todd p. 396
[4] Michael Pecht (1993). Soldering Processes and Equipment. p. 56.
[5] Giles Humpston, David M. Jacobson (2004). Principles
of Soldering. p. 118.
[6] Todd p. 395
[7] Todd, Robert H.; Allen, Dell K.(1994). Manufacturing
Processes Reference Guide. New York: Industrial Press
Inc.
[8] http://www.ipc.org/TOC/IPC-7530.pdf

11 Further reading
Seeling, Karl (1995). A study of lead-free alloys.
AIM, 1, Retrieved April 18, 2008, from http:
//www.aimsolder.com/techarticles/A%20Study%
20of%20Lead-Free%20Solder%20Alloys.pdf
Biocca, Peter (2005, April 5). Lead-free wave
soldering. Retrieved April 18, 2008, from EMSnow Web site: http://www.emsnow.com/npps/
story.cfm?ID=10669

12
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