Iron Tip Temperature Profiling

Hi Jim All the major players make soldering iron testers that will test temperature, stability, ground leakag and other parameters. WellerWA2000 Hexacon G210-G310 Edsyn MS410-MS412 Bonkote MCA700 Pace P/N8001 and others There is no particular reason that you cannot attach a thermocouple to the tip of an iron. Use a welded bead, hi temp (or no)lead insulation and a suitable type. The monitors above simply expose a thermocouple bead for you to touch with the iron tip. Some manufacturers enclose a thermocouple within the element for control. Things get a little more complicated if you are really trying to monitor the profile of heat transfer to a component but it's really just a matter of mounting a suitable thermocouple in the actual place you want to monitor and having some sort of time vs temperature logging. Reflow and wave profilers do this every day. For more information than you could ever use about the subject get the Temperature Handbook from Omega, 800/826-6342. It's free if you sound like a customer. John Thorup

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