Selective Soldering
By Bill Anderson
Product Manager
Tyco Electronics
20 North Wacker Dr., Suite 3305
Chicago, IL 60606
phone:312-782-4345
fax:312-782-4241
mobile:847-274-9111
http://automation.tycoelectronics.com/

What are some the critical cost drivers involved as a company starts to investigate ways to update their factories with equipment compatible with lead free processes. Understandably many companies will initially look for ways to maintain their investment in existing equipment. What are some of the issues involved with trying to use existing equipment for LF processes?

The trend for companies moving towards a lead free process is to replace the existing wave solder system with a selective miniature wave solder system. There are many reasons for this. This is particularly true for those companies already using aperture style pallet tooling for selective soldering on wave solder systems. These tools are expensive, and have a long lead time to design and fabricate, this is generally unacceptable in a quick turn operation. Further, the process has a limited life as keep-away areas diminish with increased product density. Selective solder pallets require the wave solder system to produce an exceptionally and turbulent solder wave to force the solder up into the aperture, this process produces vast amounts of dross, and is hard on the components of the wave solder system. Although the capital investment in a selective soldering system is generally high; When comparing the costs associated with the current soldering process against a selective soldering solution often times we can show a Return-On-Investment in a very short period.

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