Hi Jack!

Many of the solder companies make preforms, kinda' tedious to deal with
though. Depending on what kind of PTH component it is, there is a company
called TEKA (http://www.tekais.com) that make headers, sockets, connectors,
that have what they call SBL (Solder Bearing Lead) Technology.

I've got some boards here that have double-sided SMT and is NOT wave-able due
to the design, and has PTH headers that go through both sides of the board
and would have to be hand soldered...but not anymore They're fixing me up
with some headers and sockets that will be dropped in and reflowed along with
the SMT.

I've used these before at another company when we built PC104 products...they
work great!

-Steve Gregory-


> One of my colleagues here is thinking their must be some kind of solder
> ring, or collar, or donut shaped thing that you can drop over the leads of
> a (bottom mounted) through-hole device, and then when you reflow the board
> the donuts melt and form a fillet for the PTH device at the same time.
>
> Does anyone do this?
> If this is feasible, where can I find out more (and get a source for the
> solder rings)?
>
> Jack
>