Product category:
Electronics Manufacturing Quality Assurance
News Release from: HumiSeal Europe | Subject: SoldaPro
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 07 August 2002
Thermal profilers set soldering
temperatures
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.
Concoat Systems' SoldaPro range of thermal profilers (formerly available from Multicore Solders) can be used to accurately and rapidly determine the oven or wavesoldering bath temperature settings required to optimise the soldering profile of any PCB assembly This can dramatically improve both process quality and end product reliability in the field
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 18 Jul 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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Achieving the correct thermal profile also eliminates many causes of rejected assemblies that create scrap and loss of production time, as well as expensive rework.
Furthermore, with the impending move to higher melting point lead-free alloys and greener - but more process sensitive - water-based fluxes, accurate reflow profiling is fast becoming a vital production discipline.
Additionally it can also serve to greatly enhance a manufacturer's ability to attain the manufacturing standards demanded by externally approved quality control specifications such as ISO and QS9000.
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Concoat Systems' range of SoldaPro thermal data loggers travel with a circuit board as it travels through an oven.
They can either be mounted onto the PCB itself or onto a dummy carrier board.
By travelling with the assembly, shorter thermocouple leads can be used which are less prone to damage and detachment from the test assembly.
The Concoat Systems SoldaPro data logger stands at a compact 23.3mm high and the SoldaPro SlimLine at just 13mm.
Both are housed in robust stainless-steel casings, and are specifically designed to easily withstand (given a sufficient but small amount of time to cool between runs) the hostile environment of a reflow oven, even at the elevated process soldering temperatures of lead-free alloys.
Simple to operate, the SoldaPro and SoldaPro SlimLine ensure thermal profiles are accurate every time and enable the exact reproduction of optimised settings.
They also allow users to carefully control ramp and preheat and to work at the lowest possible peak temperature to guard against inflicting thermal damage to components.
Attached direct to a printer following processing, the profilers graphically plot temperature against time to an accuracy of +/-0.25C.
Alternatively, the display can illustrate the rate of temperature rise against time, which is essential for evaluating the level of potentially damaging thermal shock a PCB experiences during the soldering process.
The SoldaPro is a three-channel data logger with K-type thermocouples.
Capable of profiling convection, IR or wave soldering, SoldaPro can take up to 2048 measurements per channel at a sampling rate between 0.4 and 40Hz.
In addition to printed analysis, the SoldaPro can be linked to a computer for further processing using SoldaPro Analyser data acquisition software for more detailed profile overlays and curve analyses.
The SoldaPro SlimLine sister product introduces a new level of precision, speed and repeatability when developing thermal profiles for reflow soldering equipment.
A six-channel unit with superb thermal accuracy, it offers a thermal resolution of just 0.25C over a temperature range of 0 to 400C.
As such, the SoldaPro SlimLine is ideal for lead-free processing.
Using T- or K-type thermocouples attached to the board or to specific components to be tested, the SoldaPro SlimLine has selectable sampling intervals from 4Hz to 99h, and yields temperature measurements accurate to +/-1C.
The SoldaPro Wizard thermal profiling software (formerly available from Multicore Solders as SoldaPro Oracle) makes determining optimum reflow profile oven settings extremely easy.
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.
"As with all Concoat products, our SoldaPro hardware and software range is designed to promote end-product reliability in the field: the most expensive and reputation damaging place for any kind of manufacturing-related failure to occur", said Concoat Systems MD, Graham Naisbitt.
"And one of the most crucial areas of influence to reliability is the production soldering process".
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