Plasma Soldering SMDs

Jan 09, 2010 6 Replies
A

Hi,



I mentioned to a friend that I was reluctant to take on a project requiring hand soldering a number of SMDs. He suggested plasma soldering is now used because it heats faster so less heat travels to the package. I couldn't find much about the units other than they are used for lead-free solder. Is plasma soldering suitable for home use or are they strictly high end?



I last soldered SMDs in my DEC days. The only specialized piece of equipment was a hot air jet preheat the area. We held the SMD in place with a finger while tacking down the corners then soldered the remaining leads. There were the occasional finger slip and burned fingers. It was an order of magnitude more difficult that soldering in a DIP. DIPs would be too large for this project.



Are there other tools now available for hand soldering SMDs that I should know about?



Thanks, Gary


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N

A soldering iron with a hollow tip and flux is all you need. The whole trick is not trying to solder each pin individually with a fine tip. Just use a big or hollow tip and solder 3 to 5 pins simultaneously. The flux keeps the solder from forming bridges.

Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------
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A

What do you mean by a hollow tip? A wide spade tip does sound faster and more forgiving than the preciseness of a fine tip. I suppose SMDs require so little solder that bridges are less likely to form.

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N

I use this one:

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The concave part holds the excess solder.

Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------
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M

Is it possible the suggestion was for a Metcal? Not plasma, but RF powered. I know people who swear by them, but it seems much too complicated of a way to melt solder. Damn expensive. The manufacturing has been moved to China, so I don't know if the quality has gone down. Metcals always seem to be broken.

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J

On a sunny day (Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:08:24 -0800 (PST)) it happened " snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com" wrote in :

Indeed, I do not understand the Metcal hype eiteyr. I googled on that, and it seems to be a weird way to do things. There is the old Weller, and that works with a resistive heater, and I now have have a much cheaper other one that is adjustable and even has an auto shutoff timer, and has been working OK now for many years.

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Waht is so special about a Metcal, except the price?

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M

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The old Weller stations used a Bang-Bang controller. They caused reliability problems with CMOS & FETs in our products and were banned from the production floor, including the cable line so they couldn't be moved around. For one thing, the tips weren't grounded, and the current pulse could induce a pulse into the PC board. They were replaced with Ungar 'Loner' irons with electronic temperature controls and a tip ground that could be kept under our required three ohm limit.

Greed is the root of all eBay.
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