Method and apparatus for local application of solder to preselected conductor areas on a printed circuit board

A method for locally applying solder to a plurality of sets of preselected conductive areas on each of printed circuit boards, said method comprising:

• loading a first printed circuit board onto a pair of first rails, said first rails being located above a flux station with a plurality of flux nozzles arranged in a pattern substantially identical to that of a corresponding plurality of sets of preselected conductive areas on the first printed circuit board;
• activating said flux nozzles to locally apply flux to the sets of preselected conductive areas on the first printed circuit board;
• simultaneously transporting the first printed circuit board from said flux station to a preheater station and loading a second printed circuit board onto said first rails, said preheater station being located downstream of said flux station and below said first rails;
• activating said preheater station to preheat the first printed circuit board and activating said flux nozzles to locally apply flux to a corresponding plurality of sets of preselected conductive areas on the second printed circuit board;
• simultaneously removing the first printed circuit board from said preheater station and loading the first printed circuit board onto a pair of second rails below which a wave solder station is located, transporting the second printed circuit board from said flux station to said preheater station, and loading a third printed circuit board onto said first rails above said flux station, said wave solder station being located downstream of said preheater station and including a plurality of solder nozzles arranged in a pattern substantially identical to that of the sets of preselected conductive areas on the printed circuit boards, said second rails being located downstream of said first rails;
• activating said solder nozzles to locally apply solder to the sets of preselected conductive areas on the first printed circuit board, activating said preheater station to preheat the second printed circuit board, and activating said flux nozzles to locally apply flux to a plurality of sets of preselected conductive areas on the third printed circuit board.