Forced convection pre-heater for wave solder machine and related method

Abstract

A wave solder machine is configured to perform a wave solder operation on an electronic substrate. The wave solder machine includes a pre-heating station configured to heat the electronic substrate, a wave soldering station configured to attach electronic components to the electronic substrate with solder, and a conveyor configured to transport substrates through a tunnel passing through the fluxing station, the pre-heating station and the wave soldering station. The pre-heating station includes at least one pre-heater including an outer chamber housing, a compression box assembly disposed in the outer chamber housing, a diffuser plate disposed above the compression box assembly, and at least one heating element disposed in the outer chamber housing. The pre-heater is configured to draw heated gas into the compression box assembly from the tunnel, heat the gas, and exhaust the heated gas out to the tunnel through the diffuser plate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.