Datapaq launches selective soldering fixture

The PA2200A is said to simplify selective soldering process monitoring.

Selective soldering is employed in applications where a small number of conventional components need to be soldered to very high standard on an electronic assembly containing mostly surface-mounted components.

In many cases, however, it is difficult to obtain a temperature profile from a product assembly as it passes through the selective soldering process.

The assembly moves in both the 'X' and 'Y' directions, so the data logger must be co-located with the assembly in an area where space may be limited.

The PA2200A allows manufacturers can quickly and easily measure process stability during selective soldering.

This includes monitoring both preheat and solder pot performance with a single fixture.

Manufacturers can also compare the performance of a number of selective soldering machines and replicate temperature profiles in separate manufacturing locations.

Datapaq designed the compact and robust PA2200A fixture based on its existing Datapaq Wave and Surveyor technologies.

The unit is small enough to be integrated into a carrier with a Datapaq Q18 logger and still pass through the process.

Users can monitor reflow, wave, selective and vapour phase soldering with the same Datapaq profiler, reducing training to a minimum and easing data sharing between departments.

With the Datapaq selective soldering process monitoring solution, two sensors are used to monitor the performance of the preheat stage of the process and three sensors are used for the dip-soldering stage.

The three dip-soldering thermocouples enable monitoring of solder temperature, as well as dwell time in the solder (contact time).

These probes can be set at different heights to allow for measurement of contact time at various depths.

The system also generates detailed reports on the selective soldering operation.