What Is a Reflow Oven?
A reflow oven is a device used to bond printed circuit boards and electronic components. Soldering is used to bond PCBs and electronic components, and reflow machines are used to paste solder automatically on PCBs and mount components.
Reflow refers to the process of applying solder paste to the necessary areas on the board and bonding electronic components to the areas covered with solder when mounting surface-mounted components on the board.
There are small reflow ovens used for prototypes and large reflow ovens used for mass production.
Uses of Reflow Ovens
Reflow ovens are used to paste solder automatically onto printed circuit boards and mount electronic components for surface mounting.
When soldering components to a printed circuit board, there is a method of actually bonding the electronic components by hand using a soldering iron, but this is a very difficult process when the number of components is large or when the bonding surface is extremely small.
In recent years, the miniaturization of mounted components and the densification of mounted components due to the high integration of circuits have increased, and there is concern that insufficient adhesion or shorts may occur when soldering is done by hand. Therefore, the use of reflow ovens, which enable precise surface mounting, makes it possible to assemble boards reliably.
Principle of Reflow Ovens
Solder is pasted on a printed circuit board, and surface-mounted components are placed on top of it.
In this process, the board, solder, and electronic components are heated to bond the board and components. The reflow oven can perform these processes automatically.
To use the oven, start by inputting the necessary data in advance before mounting the components. The required data includes information such as where on the printed circuit board the solder is to be applied, which electronic components are to be mounted where, and what temperature is needed to melt the solder. It is also necessary to check whether the temperature required for soldering is higher than the endurance temperature of the electronic components when melting and bonding the solder, and to set the heating temperature at what temperature and heating time for how many seconds. These settings are called temperature profiles. Some products can do temperature profiling automatically.
Since this is a very convenient device, it is useful for making prototypes in the development of products at manufacturers.