Hirose Connector /through Hole Mounting Pin Soldering

Subscribe to Thread

We have a surface mount connector from Hirose that has two t... - Jan 27, 2015 by dbsteel

Taking a shot in the dark...... Are you using the correct... - Jan 27, 2015 by dyoungquist

dbsteel

#73405

Hirose Connector /through Hole Mounting Pin Soldering | 27 January, 2015

We have a surface mount connector from Hirose that has two through hole mounting pins on the side. The solder is wicking up the pins into the body of the connector during reflow, even with adjustments to the PCB solder mask which came directly directly from Hirose.

Various attempts at a method from the board supplier to keep the solder from wicking into the connector have failed. I think this became more of a problem after switching to a lead free process, but I'm not sure. I believe there is also a problem with hand soldering these pins.

Anyways, the solution was to just NOT solder them at all, and rely on the remaining surface mount pins (including the shield pins) to hold to to the board. Now we are seeing connectors ripped off the board in the field, so there is a problem.

Any suggestions to attach those pins to the board? Epoxy (they are worried about it getting into the connector too)? How about a Kapton mask of some sort that is real tight around the pins?

Thanks.

reply »

dyoungquist

#73406

Hirose Connector /through Hole Mounting Pin Soldering | 27 January, 2015

Taking a shot in the dark......

Are you using the correct oven profile for the connector? Solder tends to flow (wick) towards the hottest part of the connection/pin/pad it is on. It may be that the hottest part is the connector itself where the pins enters it, thus wicking the solder up into the connector. In your hottest oven zone I would try dropping the temperature of your top heater and increasing the temperature of your bottom heater. That would tend to cool the connector body while leaving the through hole temp hot enough to accomplish a proper solder joint. Of course there is a limit to how much you can drop the top zone temp while still getting good solder joints on the rest of the surface mount connections on the board.

reply »