Hi All,
I'm very interested in hearing the consensus on using a hot airknife 
in the wave solder process.  I'm sure it's a dead horse, but it's 
afairly new dead horse to me!!  ----Here's my opinion:  I've found it 
really doesn't help, and in some cases it may hurt.  I had the opportunity 
to do some DOE, where our primary concern was removal of excess 
solder on bottom side surface mount components.  (Our wave uses 
foaming flux, a chip (dancing), and a "Z" wave followed by the hot 
airknife).  

At various combinations of angle, height, temp, and pressure, the 
airknife appeared to blow the excess solder to the trailing end of 
the chip (chips parallel to the travel of the board thru the wave 
were most affected).  In the end, turning the pressure down to nil 
and the heating coil off had the best result (BY FAR).  Has anyone else done 
some experimenting and found similar/different results!?  Also, what 
guidelines do you follow when setting the hot airknife?

Lainie Loveless
(215) 242-7336
General Atronics Corp
Wyndmoor, PA 
Lainie Loveless
General Atronics Corp
Wyndmoor, PA
(215) 242-7336

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