What is wave soldering? - Leading PCB Assembly Manufacturer

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The brief introduction of wave soldering.

Wave soldering is a bulk soldering process used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards. The circuit board is passed over a pan of molten solder in which a pump produces an upwelling of solder that looks like a standing wave. As the circuit board makes contact with this wave, the components become soldered to the board. Wave soldering is used for both through-hole printed circuit assemblies, and surface mount. In the latter case, the components are glued onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB) by placement equipment, before being run through the molten solder wave. Wave soldering is mainly used in soldering of through hole components.

As through-hole components have been largely replaced by surface mount components, wave soldering has been supplanted by reflow soldering methods in many large-scale electronics applications. However, there is still significant wave soldering where surface-mount technology (SMT) is not suitable (e.g., large power devices and high pin count connectors), or where simple through-hole technology prevails (certain major appliances).

When wave soldering was first developed, it was a highly acclaimed technique. This resulted from the process's high volume and throughput capabilities. But as time went on and boards and components got smaller due to advancements in technology, surface mount components began to take the place of through-hole components. This led to the requirement for various soldering techniques, including reflow soldering.

Even now, wave soldering is still utilized. Through-hole components are necessary in a number of situations, and soldering is still a fairly popular method for doing so.

To stop any problems from getting to the clients, the constructed boards need to be visually inspected and run through an AOI machine after soldering.

The wave soldering machine is still required for every PCB assembly factory, despite the fact that reflow soldering has nearly completely replaced the wave soldering process. This assembly technology is still invaluable.