Soldering iron construction?

I'm curious how soldering irons are made up inside ..? Esp what kind of material is used to insulate the resistive heater while still conducting heat?

I would like a needle sized soldering iron..

Reply to
pbdelete
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still

From years ago pulling apart a soldering iron, there were lots of little ceramic beads.

Typing in the magic recipe into Google comes up with some results, "how are soldering irons made"

Just why would you like a needle sized soldering iron?

Reply to
techie_alison

Tried google. Seems there are great info on how to use them. Not how they are made.

0.5 mm pitch smd components and smaller like LLP packages etc. For use by a robot.
Reply to
pbdelete

** Mainly ceramic in modern low voltage ones.

Have seen mica used in old style mains voltage irons.

...... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

the cheap ones use mica, some of the sllighty better ones (eg Antex) use a ceramic sleeve, I've not investigated the construction of the professional ones.

could be tricky.

--
Bye.
   Jasen
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Reply to
jasen

If just the tip should be needle size, you simple take a copper wire 2.5 mm2, wrap it around an existing soldering iron, and then form the end of the copper wire to a small tip. Or take a needle and fix it with metal wire around the existing iron. Works great !

Stef Mientki

Reply to
Stef Mientki

for manufacture they screen-print the solder on before the components and then heat the whole thing up.

Bye. Jasen

Reply to
jasen

No oxidation issues or so ..? Normal tip is chemicaly treated asfaik to manage usage.

Reply to
pbdelete

I know. I have seen it hands-on in a commercial scale. However not all components are happy with RoHS temperature profiles. Especially if you want to change chips etc.. frequently. So therefore I'm looking into a non-oven approach.

Reply to
pbdelete

For soldering in a haystack? ;-)

Reply to
Bobo The Chimp

I've no experience, but the most used way to hand solder these small components, is done something like this:

- use a normal soler iron,

- place the part and use lots of tin to solder it

- then remove the tin with desoldering wick I've seen the results, and they look quit good.

Stef Mientki

Reply to
Stef Mientki

Other way OP is to just stick the whole lot in an oven at 250oC for about 5 minutes. Makes quite a good job too. All of my SMD chips I tack in each corner with an iron then take the PCBs to the oven. Sure beats making sponges.

Reply to
techie_alison

Or you can get a soldering iron with replacable tips, and you can get tips that go down to 0.5mm, maybe less. ive even seen some tips especially for surface mount IC's that will (de)solder all the pins at once. how effective these are I do no know.

Reply to
Mark Fortune

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