
Pre-Heating: This stage prepares the board for the soldering process and prevents thermal shock, which may damage components or the board.There are four stages the board goes through in the reflow oven: preheating, thermal soak, reflow soldering, and cooling. Reflow soldering works for both single side and double side mounting. The assembled board is then conveyed into the reflow oven where the paste melts and creates solder joints. Pick and place machines add the components to the paste. In this process, solder paste is applied to the PCB, where components will need to be bonded.

Reflow soldering is the preferred method for surface mount assembly but is also an option for other assembly methods.

There are five parts in the wave solder process: preparation, fluxing, pre-heating, wave soldering, and cooling. Wave soldering is a faster process and is used primarily with through-hole printed circuit assembly, but is also used with surface mount technologies. The Wave Soldering ProcessĪs the demand for electronics components increases, manufacturers need to find ways to increase the speed and efficiency of PCB assembly. Regardless of the process, precision soldering is necessary for the function of any printed circuit board. But which process is better? It depends on the type of PCB assembly and production process you are using. Capital Equipment Exchange has a range of used wave solder machines and used reflow ovens to help you increase production and solder components to your printed circuit boards (PCB).
