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Board wave soldering

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#54754

Board wave soldering | 15 May, 2008

Hi guys, Yesterday when I was with my friends I heard that some of my friends were speaking about Optimizer and board wave soldering. At that time I didn�t get anything about it however can somebody help me out that how does an Optimizer related with board wave soldering?

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#54760

Board wave soldering | 15 May, 2008

Typing "Optimizer Wave Solder" in Google brought back this: http://www.techinfocorp.com/wso/howandwhy.htm

I have no relationship with this company.

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#54769

Board wave soldering | 15 May, 2008

The question you should ask is: What's the difference between an Optimizer and a WaveRider?

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#54781

Board wave soldering | 17 May, 2008

The Optimizer can be run through your wave like a regular board. It measures temps, times and parallelism of your waves in relationship to your board (pot to conveyor). Run the Optimizer till you get you temps, times and are parallel to your waves. This should result in optimum wave solder yields. Run product till you do achieve best yields, and then rerun the Optimizer. Now you have a recorded known set numbers for you product that produce best yields. Next time yields go down you can run the Optimizer and see if your numbers are where they need to be. It can also be used as a maintenance tool to assure the wave is right where it needs to be after a P.M.

If you have any time with wave solder, you'll know that your settings that work one day don't work the next. Bent fingers, pot dross, irregular P.M.s etc..... all change the flow of solder. So the best thing is to collect parameter numbers of what is really happening in your wave. This is what this tool can give you. It measures the parameters where the rubber meets the road.

This is the theory behind it. Each company that uses it is different, but like any tool, can be useful if you use it right. Ours worked pretty well till our NPI manager ran it through the reflow oven. I thought it was better than the old glass plate process (99% of you are asking "What is the glass plate process?"). We still use the pallet it came with and use our Slim Kic with it.

Demo The Optimizer and see if it's worth it to you.

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#54791

Board wave soldering | 19 May, 2008

I agree with RealChunks. The application of any of these "wave solder process control tools" is dependant on how the shop is run. At some shops, PM is inconsistent and slacked off on. At other shops, there is no technical expertise at the operator or even technician level. At yet another shop, the data is used against you. So many factors to consider.

Personally, I have used both with mixed success. I'd say, the shop where it worked best was one where we had an old 1980s model Econopak 229 and that's where the Optmizer was most successful. It had old analog controls for the pumps (10-turn pots), and after monthly deep-dross, nothing was ever the same. The pot's 4 lead screws were manually levelled after PM, etc. Consequently, the settings changed month-after-month and Optimizer told us where to set the waves every month. I was then able to correlate settings with defect rates. It worked well, because everyone was on-board with the program - management, Maintenance, and operators.

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#54795

Board wave soldering | 19 May, 2008

Any idea on price for the Optimizer? Does the LCD have any issues with top side preheat?

Thanks

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#54798

Board wave soldering | 19 May, 2008

Last I heard, the Optimizer costs $10k. As long as you put the cover on, there should be no issues with the LCD.

Hmmm... where're the SALESMEN? Last thread we had on this, the salesman wrote a book here on SMTNet.

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Grayman

#54802

Board wave soldering | 20 May, 2008

I sell wave solder optimizer in Philippines. I have sold many of this optimizer system. It cost less than US$10K.

Most of my customer is happy with the performance except for some issues from customers like LCD not yet colored, uses RS232, upgrades were not yet available and other minor issues. The only thing I like with the optimizer is it shows the profile reading at the LCD screen and only the good profile can be printed or save in your computer. Over all the solder wave is a cost effective optimizer.

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