Hi Mick,

At 10:24 AM 8/1/00 +1000, Michael Thwaite wrote:
>We require our Reflow ovens to be calibrated and more importantly, to be
under process control.
>
>Currently we use a thermal profiler to check the oven and use the profiler
to determine the profile for each type of board put through.
>
>What is the best way to ensure that the oven will produce good results
with the minimum of fuss.
>
>I understand that a our profiler which thermocouples are soldered to the
board, does give an indication what the PCB is subjected to.
>The other method is to have thermocouples connected to the oven but it
does not give a true indication what is happening to the PCB,

A couple of other options for monitoring stability of oven performance are:

To pass something, with thermal properties similar to a PCB but more stable
(and which has thermocouples attached), through the oven on a regular
basis. The Datapaq Surveyor is one example of this approach - I think there
are 2 or 3 other companies marketing something similar.

The Quad AIR system, which uses thermal imaging to monitor the peak
temperature distribution in every board reflowed. I invented this, so I'm
heavily biased, but I believe it is currently the only way to be certain
every board has seen the same process.


David Whalley
Senior Lecturer
Manufacturing Engineering Department
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leics LE11 3TU
UK

Tel. +44(0)1509 222930
Fax. +44(0)1509 267725

[log in to unmask]
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/en/research/mp/david_whalley/index.html

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