Voltera Community

Reflowing larger components

jschneck 2017-03-07 04:18:12 UTC #1

I am using the voltera to build a board which has an SMD DC Barrel jack and a RJ45 port on it as well as a handful of small resistors and an SOIC 8 chip. I used the machine to apply solder paste and reflow the board using the built in Automatic reflow setting. The results were mixed. The smaller components reflowed fine, but the larger components did not. I noticed that the power jack that I am using specifies a higher temp reflow profile on the datasheet.

http://www.cui.com/product/resource/pj-002ah-smt.pdf

I was curious on the suggested strategy for these larger type of pads and components. Should I enter my own profile verbatim from the datasheet or is there some level of "meet in the middle" as for temperature considering the compounds are different in the voltera solder paste. Also, if I were to use a profile that heats higher than the auto profile, do I also do the small components in the same single reflow, or is it better to split it up.

jazozaya 2017-03-14 15:53:56 UTC #2

Hi @jschneck,

I know it's a little bit late, but is this is a board you printed with the V-One or is it a board that you got fabbed and are just dispensing solder paste on it? If it is a traditionally fabbed board then you could probably reflow by manually controlling the temperature in the 'Manual' mode.

The automatic reflow profile will heat to 140C and hold the temperature for a minute or so before ramping up to 180C. The reason it holds at 140C for a bit is to allow the board and the components to catch up and reach a uniform temperature.

Large components will act as heat sinks and will take a little bit longer to get up to temperature. So if you are reflowing manually you can hold the temperature at 140C for several minutes before ramping to 180C. Once it reaches 180C, you can hold the temperature until the large components reflow before bringing it back down.

Also, make sure you clamp the board during reflow to ensure good heat conduction between the V-One heated plate and the board.

Our solder paste reflows at a relatively low temperature so it is unlikely components will be damaged by the heating time. If you still have parts that did not reflow, you can always clean them up with a hot air gun.

Hope this helps!