Selective Soldering Fixture helps to optimize the manufacture of electronic assemblies

DATAPAQ introduces PA2200A Selective Soldering Fixture:
DATAPAQ, a leading supplier of temperature profiling systems, has introduced the PA2200A Selective Soldering Fixture. This innovative solution simplifies selective soldering process monitoring, which helps to optimize the manufacture of electronic assemblies used in a wide range of automotive and aerospace products. The compact, robust, easy-to-use PA2200A fixture is based on existing DATAPAQ Wave and Surveyor technologies. The unit is small enough to be integrated into a carrier with a DATAPAQ Q18 logger and still pass through the process. Users can monitor reflow, wave, selective and even vapour phase soldering with the same DATAPAQ profiler, reducing train-ing to a minimum and easing data sharing between departments. The selective soldering process monitoring solution uses two sensors to monitor the perfor-mance of the pre-heat stage of the process, and three sensors for the dip sol-dering stage. The three dip soldering thermocouples enable monitoring of sold-er temperature, as well as dwell time in the solder (contact time). These probes can be set at different heights to allow for measurement of contact time at various depths. The system also generates detailed reports on the selective soldering operation.

Selective soldering is employed in applications where a small number of con-ventional components needs to be soldered to a very high standard on an elec-tronic assembly containing mostly surface-mounted components. In many cas-es, however, it is difficult to obtain a temperature profile from a product assembly as it passes through the selective soldering process. The assembly moves in both the “X” and “Y” directions, so the data logger must be co-located with the assembly in an area where space may be very limited. Thanks to the PA2200A, manufacturers can quickly and easily measure process stability during selective soldering. This includes monitoring both pre-heat and solder pot performance with a single fixture. They can also compare the performance of a number of selective soldering machines and easily replicate temperature profiles in separate manufacturing locations worldwide.