#Reflow soldering at home manual#
#Reflow soldering at home software#

Now that you’ve thought about the thermal performance needed for your reflow soldering, another practical consideration is the reflow oven size. If you purchase a soldering reflow oven with multiple thermocouples, you can ensure all important of the PCB heat sufficiently and more effectively “cook” your PCBs. Just like your cooking oven at home, reflow ovens have hot areas, and cold areas and the temperature isn’t always 100% accurate.

These sensors ensure the toaster oven reflow heats and cool as desired. Reflow ovens usually have one or more thermocouples inside them to sense the temperature profile. Custom thermal profiles will give you the flexibility to efficiently solder different kinds of Printed Circuit Boards with various solder pastes.Īlong with thermal profiles, temperature precision and sense are important considerations for what is a reflow oven process. For example, the larger heating element will heat up a small PCB much faster than a large PCB, and therefore a shortened thermal profile can be created to provide the fastest soldering possible.Īdditionally, environmentally friendly applications may require lead-free solder paste, which has a higher melting point than traditional tin-lead-based solder paste and in so requires an improved hot plate. This feature is invaluable if you have different types of Printed Circuit Boards to assemble and need to optimize your time.

#Reflow soldering at home software#

There are advantages and disadvantages to each.Īn advantage of higher-end reflow ovens is better software and parts like a better heating plate or heating element and circuit board allow the option to program several custom thermal profiles and save them in the oven’s software. I have used both a $50 “reflow oven” (a.k.a. a toaster reflow oven) and much more sophisticated and expensive reflow ovens. Many companies sell reflow ovens, but let’s talk about a few factors you should consider before your purchase.ĭepending on your budget, you can buy a reflow oven for $50 to $50,000 or anywhere in between. These temperatures should be low enough to ensure the printed board components are not damaged, yet high enough to melt the solder paste. The four main temperature zones of the thermal profile include preheating, soaking, reflow, and cooling. But sometimes the thermal profile must be modified for the best soldering performance.

Electronics manufacturers provide recommended thermal profiles that serve as a good starting point. The temperature of the hot air in the toaster oven reflow follows a thermal profile that provides the optimum heat and cooling rate for the given solder paste and components. The solder reflow process is based on convection heating, similar to that in your home oven. Finally, the PCB is placed inside the convection reflow oven to begin the healing process. The components are placed in position and are usually held in place by the adhesive nature of the solder paste. To begin, a solder paste mixture containing both solder mask and flux is applied with a stencil to the fabricated PCB.

#Reflow soldering at home manual#

Reflow soldering can quickly assemble high-density PCBs that may pose manual hand soldering challenges to even the most experienced engineers and PCB technicians. This post explores what is a reflow oven and the factors involved in choosing what is right for you. While the ambitious hobbyist may choose to build a toaster oven “reflow oven”, many businesses can save time and resources in the soldering process by purchasing a commercial bench reflow oven. If you have assembled dense PCBs with many small surface-mount components or used ball grid array (BGA) devices in your designs, you have undoubtedly come across solder PCB reflow ovens. Whether you’re an electrical engineer or an electronics hobbyist, solder reflow ovens enable fast and convenient printed board (PCB) assembly.