Suggestions Please

Hello Everyone! I know that we have people on this site from all walks of life and into every kind of manufacturing known. Does anyone here know of companies that make good quality solder machine? At our facility, we are using Pillarhouse and MTA, but we have had a request made by one of our customers to double our production. We are now already working at full capacity. This is too much money to ignore and we are wanting to meet their request but now I am tasked to help the ME to get this program rolling and get information. Any names. By the way, this is all new to me, I came into work one day and they told me I had been promoted to ME Tech. I am so totally unprepared for this! I have never researched companies or helped buy machines. Now I get to have some input!

Solder

At our repair facility we use pace and we have some hako's. The Hako's are good and pretty cheap.

You need to be more specific on type i.e. are we talking wave solder or ....?

Mr. Stewart,

I would suggest RotoForm. http://www.rotoform.com/Soldering%20Machines.htm

We have been using it for the last 6 years. It is different than the traditional wave systems, in that it is what you would call a drag system...in essence an automated dipping system but larger.

It requires less time to heat up in that the solder pot is a lower profile, plus it uses double the elements during startup. It takes approximately 45 minutes to heat. Depending on your profiles, you can run a pallet between 2-3 minutes. When we run Smart-PAK boards, we can do 9 per pallet. Our Elite-2000 boards can be done 4 per pallet.

It offers upper and lower preheat elements. Most systems offer lower only and then cover the preheat area with a cover, thus making a tunnel. This system allows for better top side heating.

In that there is no wave, you generate less drause, therefore less wasted solder.

There systems are RoHS compliant.

We are currently using the 24/20 machine. A pallet can have multiple rails therefore you can run more than one board at a time, unlike wave solders whereby you can only run one board at a time.

When all the component manufacturers have converted over completely, we will be ordering a new system. They are currently working on a system that will have a touch screen interface and be PLC controlled.

Also, it will probably be much less expensive than a traditional wave solder, in combination with the greater throughput, should greatly improve the return on your investment.

The gentleman's name to talk with there is Charlie Slover...he is the owner.

Hope this helps.

God Bless,

Thank you for your replies. I have more information now, we have a part that has 3 resistors to be soldered along with 8 points for electrical hook up. The operation we are doing now is using 2 machines. One for the resistors and one for the hook up. The MTA is robot controlled to go from one point to the next at each machine. The solder is fed from a roll attached to the robotic arm. The software allows us to adjust preheat time, solder feed speed, alignment of the soldertips to the part, etc....The medium we are soldering is tin-plated brass terminals to a copper alloy. At this point it takes about 25 seconds per part to be soldered.