Apparatus for cooling printed circuit boards in wave soldering
AssigneeFord Motor Company
InventorsVivek Amir Jairazbhoy, Andrew Z. Glovatsky, Timothy Joseph Yerdon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for soldering components to a circuit board. The apparatus includes a conveyor in a tunnel for transporting the board through a preheat zone, molten waves of solder including a turbulent wave and a laminar wave, and a cool down zone through which the board passes upon exit from the laminar flow wave of the solder wave. The improvement comprises at least one distributing manifold mounted in the tunnel having an inlet port for receiving a cold gas under pressure and at least one outlet nozzle for directing the cold gas to the circuit board, thereby rapidly cooling the circuit board and the components.
Claims17
In an apparatus for soldering components to a circuit board, the apparatus having a conveyor in a tunnel for transporting the board through a preheat zone, molten waves of solder including a turbulent wave and a laminar wave, and a cool down zone through which the board passes upon exit from the laminar flow wave of the solder wave, an improvement comprising:
- at least one distributing manifold mounted in the tunnel above the conveyor having an inlet port for receiving a cold gas under pressure and at least one outlet nozzle for directing the cold gas downwardly to the circuit board, the distributing manifold providing a uniform gas pressure at each nozzle, thereby rapidly cooling the circuit board and the components.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.