Hello all,

Wow, after an 8 year hiatus from the electronics industry, and the Technet, I am surprised to see so many familiar names still active on the Technet.  I see this as a testament to your wisdom and staying power, something I didn't have!

In my new job, in a very small shop of R&D quantity, I see that we have a very small IR reflow oven that is seldom used (most of our boards are entirely hand soldered or contracted out).  The oven is a ~15 year old bench top oven with a heating tunnel that is 3 feet long - 4 heat zones.  The reports I hear are of  "hit-or-miss" quality output, which might not necessarily be the oven and could be the process. Our boards can be complex, multi-layer and with some large QFPs, big ground planes, etc.  My question is: does anyone have direct experience to share regarding these small bench top IR reflow ovens, and did/do you have a positive experience?  For the record, the oven is a DIMA SMT Systems SMRO-0252.  We use 63/37 solder, RMA flux.  We do profile the boards, but since the datapaq has not been calibrated in 10+ years, I look at these profiles with some suspicion.  Your feedback will help my decision process to keep the oven and work on the process, or work on getting a new oven.  As always, I appreciate your insight!

Howard Watson



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