Wave soldering frame

[BorisRap]

Good day,

I'm looking for a material to make frames for a wave solder machine.


In our company we have a wave soldering machine, a client now wants to solder a board with some SMD components on the bottom side that cannot be solder with wave.
I must design a 3D model of a frame in which we put the board and it will cover the SMD components and leave the THT pads exposed for the wave to solder.

Do you know what is the best material for this purpose? We had some similar frames made out of some glass fiber compound, but they'd bend after a few uses. Also they cannot be machined very precisely because the warping was way worse in thin parts of the mold.

Do you know any material that's heat resistant, will keep its shape when exposed to those temperatures even if it's thin (~1mm) and can be machined, that's used for this purpose?

Thank you very much

[Jon_S]

I haven't come across this exact kind of shield before, but everything that actually touched solder on my old place's wave line (conveyor fingers, and support strips) was made of thin titanium sheet metal. I don't recall them ever having issues with that part of the system. I was always impressed, as a nosy engineer, as to the extent that solder never wetted the Ti parts in the slightest.

[BorisRap]

I haven't come across this exact kind of shield before, but everything that actually touched solder on my old place's wave line (conveyor fingers, and support strips) was made of thin titanium sheet metal. I don't recall them ever having issues with that part of the system. I was always impressed, as a nosy engineer, as to the extent that solder never wetted the Ti parts in the slightest.

Thanks for the insight, I was thinking on using titanium, but I'm a bit afraid the solder can clog up the holes if they're very small. Doesn't solder stick at all to titanium? Even in this conditions?

[SMTech]

Good day,

I'm looking for a material to make frames for a wave solder machine.


In our company we have a wave soldering machine, a client now wants to solder a board with some SMD components on the bottom side that cannot be solder with wave.
I must design a 3D model of a frame in which we put the board and it will cover the SMD components and leave the THT pads exposed for the wave to solder.

Do you know what is the best material for this purpose? We had some similar frames made out of some glass fiber compound, but they'd bend after a few uses. Also they cannot be machined very precisely because the warping was way worse in thin parts of the mold.

Do you know any material that's heat resistant, will keep its shape when exposed to those temperatures even if it's thin (~1mm) and can be machined, that's used for this purpose?

Thank you very much

You would be way way better off taking your requirement to a specialist tooling company that makes these for a living, it is not straightforwards and you would be doing all sorts of expensive trial and error as you learnt works and what does not.

[loki42]

Durostone is probably what you're looking for but I'd get someone I make it https://www.roechling.com/industrial/products/composites/gfrp-cfrp/pcb-solder-pallets

[IconicPCB]

Titanium is a good choice, solder does not wet it and any openings small enough will prevent solder form wetting PCB surface due to solder surface tension.
Another material You can use is G10, a material similar to FR4,
G10 is available in thickness of a few millimeters and will offer space to machine pockets for a more protective pocket,
G10 may have a life expectancy below Your production run.

Your other option is to apply adhesive and actually solder the components on the bottom side using the wave soldering process.