Monday, August 11, 2014

Tabletop Reflow Oven With Oven Toasters

By Tanisha Berg


Activities involving electrical components are inevitable anywhere, in offices, in factories and even at home. For instance, computers are now playing very significant roles in the every day living of the people. Communication, transactions and just about everything are done electronically nowadays. Indeed, we are now living in an electronic world.

Electronics means electricity, and to create it, you should do several metal connections. The process of connecting metals together is called reflow soldering. Its goal is to make electric current pass through circuits by joining metal components together. Large ovens are used in this kind of process, however, you can convert an oven toaster into a tabletop reflow oven.

You must first understand how the job is done. What joins the metal pieces together is the solder. This is what forms the mechanical bond between the pieces and it has a low melting point than the pieces themselves. This is to avoid burning which might damage other metal parts and to make the melted piece to settle down and cool faster. Solder is also used in plumbing and jewelry making.

Heating the set comes next. This is where the solder melts and permanently joins the parts. This soldering process is primarily applied when attaching surface mount components to a circuit board. Reflow ovens do the job of heating, although there are alternatives to them, infrared lamps or hot air pencil for individual joining of parts.

There are two types of reflow ovens though, infrared and convection ovens and vapor phase ovens. The first type uses a conveyor belt to move the set through the several chambers of heating and cooling. For safety and quality purposes, the moving in each zone is done in preset time.

The second type uses a heat transfer liquid that undergoes transition to emit thermal energy used to do the soldering work. The boiling point of the liquid should match that of the solder to achieve the best results. Remember that the solder should not burn because it would definitely ruin the work.

The advantage of using vapor phase is that it is oxygen free compared to the convection ovens where nitrogen is constantly pumped into the chamber to achieve an oxygen free atmosphere. Since it takes a long time to do this, more nitrogen is used amounting to more cost in the process. Another is that because the boiling point is limited depending on the boiling point of the liquid used, no overheating can occur. That is why the liquid to be used should be chosen carefully.

For starters, you can make use of a secondhand, or if you want, a brand new oven toaster to serve as your reflow oven. You can make adjustments in their wiring and electrical components that will make it usable for reflow works. When you are in a very restricted space, it can come very convenient.

You do not need to rent a big space because you can do the work on a tabletop. You just have to know the proper steps to convert one into a reflow oven. The best thing to do is to consult with an electronics expert and not doing the job on your own. With little knowledge, you are just risking your safety. The field of electronics can be more dangerous than you think.




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