Ed Cosper asked:

>What would a normal temperature range for wave solder be for a standard
>FR4 product and roughly how many seconds of exposure to the wave would be
>typical.

Trying to live up to Jack's high praise:

Eutectic tin-lead pot operating temp at ~ 470-500 degrees F is normal.

Your exposure is a function of the wave contact length, typically measured
with a tempered glass fixture. Contact length is perhaps 1-3 inches. This
sometimes changes without the operator knowing, due to the variation of the
solder pump head, pump speed, the thickness of the board, etc.

Conveyor settings of at 4-6 ft/min would then give you (check my math):

conveyor       contact time
setting      per inch of wave
-------      ----------------
4 fpm             1.25 sec
6 fpm             0.83 sec
8 fpm             0.62 sec

So, it could range from 3.75 seconds with the 4 fpm conveyor & 3" wave to
0.6 sec with an 8 fpm conveyor rate and a 1" wave. I'd say 2 seconds is
quite typical. YMMV.


cheers,


Jerry Cupples
Interphase Corporation
Dallas, TX USA
http://www.flash.net/~cupples

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