Product category:
Electronics Manufacturing Quality Assurance
News Release from: HumiSeal Europe | Subject: SoldaPro Wizard
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 18 July 2002
Wizard takes guesswork out of oven
profiling
The latest version of Concoat Systems' SoldaPro Wizard thermal profiling software makes determining optimum reflow profiles and corresponding oven settings easier than ever.
The latest version of Concoat Systems' SoldaPro Wizard thermal profiling software (formerly available from Multicore Solders as SoldaPro Oracle) makes determining optimum reflow profiles and corresponding oven settings easier than ever The user simply attaches the thermocouple probes of a Concoat Systems SoldaPro thermal profiler (or data logger) to an assembly, runs it through an oven, and SoldaPro Wizard will reveal the exact zone settings for the optimum profile of that PCB and its components, without any form of guesswork
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 14 Dec 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The SoldaPro range of thermal profilers can accurately and rapidly determine the oven or wavesoldering bath temperature settings required to optimise the soldering profile of any PCB assembly.
All SoldaPro Wizard needs is two or three initial profile runs for either a new oven, or an existing oven whose thermal characteristics have suddenly changed (for instance due to repair maintenance or thorough internal cleaning).
It will by then have an intimate knowledge of precisely how the oven behaves and further runs will generally yield little or no appreciable difference in prediction accuracy.
SoldaPro Wizard achieves this remarkable capability by exploiting pioneering artificial intelligence programming created by a pure maths graduate from Cambridge University.
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At its core is a multidimensional adaptive matrix - more commonly known as a 'neural net' - which continually learns for itself how an oven behaves thermally.
The result: an unsurpassed level of predictive reliability and accuracy.
"Such programming sophistication is totally unique in the reflow oven thermal profiling market", said Graham Naisbitt, MD of Concoat Systems.
"It allows the SoldaPro Wizard to actually learn for itself the exact thermal characteristics of an oven and to know exactly how even the smallest changes in zone settings will affect the thermal profile experienced by any given assembly".
Another major benefit of SoldaPro Wizard is that its predicted settings will also immediately identify and compensate for faulty reflow characteristics.
This is because its forecasting is based on continuous learning and monitoring of the actual thermal characteristics of an oven.
Prime examples of faulty characteristics include errors in the calibration of an oven's conveyor (which is surprisingly common), unusually large differences in thermal loads on an assembly, thermal overspill between an oven's heating zones, and the effects of oven cleaning cycles and minor modifications to the profiling procedure.
The SoldaPro Wizard also offers unique statistical data analysis features including automatic gradient measurement on thermal profiles and enhanced limit handling, allowing the operator to add oven and PCB descriptions to each profile to clarify thermocouple positioning on individual PCB layouts.
"The SoldaPro Wizard can therefore rapidly and accurately maintain an optimised reflow soldering profile for almost all assemblies", continues Naisbitt.
"This can dramatically improve a manufacturer's general reflow quality, and reduce its process costs due to less rejected assemblies, expensive rework and defect-induced downtime.
Additionally it will serve to enhance their ability to achieve externally approved quality control specifications such as ISO and QS9000.
This all serves to promote end-product reliability in the field: the most expensive and reputation damaging place for any kind of manufacturing-related failure to occur.
This is why Concoat Systems as a company offers a full range of equipment and instruments designed to accurately measure the long term reliability of electronics assemblies and products.
And one of the most crucial areas of influence is the production soldering process".
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