During normal soldering, the temperature of the soldering iron can drop 50, 100 or even 150 degrees Celsius. This is caused by the substrate or component being soldered removing the stored thermal energy from the iron tip.
There are two types of heating systems used in soldering iron technology. Stored Power & Direct Power.
Stored Power:
This technology is most commonly used with both hand soldering and robotic soldering iron units. Essentially a large, hollow iron tip is placed over a ceramic or stainless steel heating element. The term "stored" means that the mass of the copper tip stores the thermal energy and transfers that to the components for soldering. The problem with this technology is that the thermocouple is normally housed in the ceramic heating element and not the solder tip. The distance between the thermocouple and the apex of the tip is normally too great and therefore immediate temperature sensing and recovery is not possible. The result is intermittent "cold" joints due to the inability of the thermocouple to react to thermal energy loss.
Direct Power:
Direct Power (RS Iron Unit)
This is a patented technology used exclusively by Apollo Seiko. The concept of Direct Power allows for almost instantaneous temperature recovery. The Apollo Seiko iron tips are one cohesive unit (tip, heater & thermocouple). The ceramic heating element contains a type K thermocouple. This unit is then embedded directly into the 99.9% oxygen-free copper tip. The distance between the thermocouple and the apex of the tip is very small and there is no air gap to allow for false temperature readings. The Apollo RS iron unit heats up from ambient to 350 degrees Celsius in less than 8 seconds. This means that the iron tip can recover a minimum of 40 degrees Celsius per second. The end result is very consistent tip temperature solder joint after solder joint. The P.I.D. temperature controller compensates for heat loss or gain by communicating directly with the thermocouple two times per second.
Point Solder:
Point soldering is the most recognized type because it simply mimics an operator doing hand-soldering. Most point soldering is done either post wave or post reflow where temperature sensitive components cannot handle process solder temperatures. Components such as LCD's, SMT LED's, molded plastic components etc. Apollo Seiko has over 300 different tip geometries to address virtually all point solder applications. If your application requires a different tip profile, we can design and deliver a customized tip in as little as 10 weeks.
Point soldering is exactly what it says. An automated iron unit moves from point to point and performs a pre-programmed soldering sequence. Over 30 different profiles can be customized to deliver optimal solder quality. The Direct Power technology allows for very consistent results with multi-layer PCB's, ground plane (wagon wheel) joints and large heat sinks. Thermal energy is focused at the point of soldering and there is no damage to adjacent components.
Slide Solder:
Slide or drag soldering has a more specialized use. There are many connector applications, headers, edge cards etc. that have many joints to solder and have evenly spaced leads. The slide soldering concept is a science of combining the right solder wire, liquid flux &/or flux core, temperature and feeding and travel speeds. When these items are properly combined, very fast, efficient and high quality solder joints are the result.
Surface tension (and flux) allow the solder to migrate to the leads and pads and not form "shorts" or "bridges". Slide soldering will produce a solder joint in less than one second.
Apollo Seiko has over 300 different tip profiles to accommodate tightly spaced rows, taller pins and multi-layer boards.
We welcome you to visit our office to see for yourself the initial set up and testing.
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