Small volume through-hole soldering help
Zap-o
Posts: 452
I have to mass produce 100 - 200 circuit boards and need to come up with a way to solder the through hole connectors. I have a solder stencil and an oven for the surface mount components, but cant figure out how to solder the 5 or so through-hole components on each board - other than by hand.
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
Comments
Or use a flip frame.
Have you tried putting paste on your through hole? Depending on what it is it can work.
As I said, you just wipe them across the surface of the solder. You don't dip them! I would think that it needs a lot of practice.
Solder paste won't work very well.
Now some caveats: Combined with already installed SMT parts on top, you may remelt their joints if left in the molten solder too long. Also, any areas on the bottom of the board that you don't want the solder to touch will have to be masked with Kapton tape. And this is not a technique for producing thousands of boards, unless you have really cheap labor. But, for 100-200 units, ti's an appropriately-scaled method to use. If your boards are small, be sure to panelize them and cut or break them out after soldering to save time. This will entail a larger solder tank, but the time you save will pay for that tank very quickly. BTW, I've only used dip soldering with leaded solder. The process may be a little different for lead-free solders.
-Phil
I am intending on mass producing 200 PCBs at a time so I figured this process could make it happen. In the future I will automate things but that as we know requires a lot of capital. On that note I cant decide what machine to get first a pick and place, oven or wave solder machine. I guessing a pick and place will be my next purchase since a lot of the boards I engineer use SMD parts.
Again thanks people.
Solder pots work fine - there are even automated solder dipping machines that we've used quite effectively for the volumes you describe.
Don't bother with a wave soldering machine in my opinion. Old technology, power hungry, messy and uses lots of power. You won't be putting one of those in your garage quite so easily. They hold anywhere from fifty to several hundred pounds of solder.
But before you spend any money be sure to visit these guys in your backyard http://www.ace-protech.com/ and ask them to demonstrate a selective solder bubble machine. Although a new one is likely out of your price range just be sure to take a look. There's nothing more painful than buying a machine only to find out you needed something bigger, faster, more automated.
You could also take a look at a robotic soldering station like these which can be found quite cheaply (compared to a new one) on the used market for around $10-20K. http://www.equipmatching.com/used_equipment/2/347/140862.php
I suggest you get familiar with the used equipment market, too. I am doing similar research right now for a larger volume through-hole solution. What's happening out there is total business carnage - through the recession many contract manufacturers closed up and you can buy good used equipment quite easily now. Much of it is being shipped off to Asia, but perhaps half of it is resold in the USA.
You can find a used P&P the same way.
Ken Gracey
In case you get interested in buying a used wave soldering machine, I know where you can get a very capable Electrovert in SoCal for about $5K or less. I was just down there on Monday looking at some equipment. Used equipment only makes sense if you can study up on a particlar brand of machine and have a positive contact in the factory for future support. And you'll need to be able to put time into it in order to get it working the way you want. This might work for you, but in our case it can have an expense that exceeds any benefit far too easily.
- Ken
My budget is small at the moment ~10K. I could get a loan but I don't think I want to peruse that avenue just yet. I can say that I have more work than manpower and trying to figure out what equipment is most important to my small engineering business has become oddly tricky.
Ill look at the link you mentioned. Again thanks Ken and thanks to everyone else that has helped me get this far.
Any comments on manual pick and place machines? I currently place SMD parts by hand.
Pick and Place machines are their own challenge. There's so much to look at: support, mechanics (servo, stepper, encoders), vision systems, and hours. We've only bought brand new machines for these reasons - the risk of getting a lemon with no support (or expensive support) and parts is a real issue for a business that depends on manufacturing. If you're doing contract manufacturing you're going to need an army of feeders, too. These get super expensive, really quick. You will inevitably get involved in the choice of parts used by your customers sooner than later, else you'll only chase your tail buying feeders to build their products.
Discouraged yet? Don't be. Just do a lot of research and talk to a bunch of people before you spend any money on a P&P machine. Many contract manufacturers are suffering right now and they'd probably do that part for a very low cost. . . . or sell you their machines quite easily as well.