Numerical Modeling of the Wave Soldering Process and Experimental Validation

One of the most important procedures in the electronics industry is the assembly of electronic components onto printed circuit boards (PCBs) through the soldering process. Among the various soldering methods available, wave soldering is a very effective technique. In this process, the components are placed onto the PCB, which, subsequently, is coated with a flux and then passed across a preheat zone. In the end, the assembly is moved by the conveyor and passed over the surface of the molten solder wave in order to create a reliable connection both mechanically and electrically. Although this process has been frequently used, there are soldering defects that remain unsolved and continue to emerge, such as the missing of surface-mount components in the PCB after the soldering process. Aiming to understand if such defects are related to the force exerted by the solder wave in the PCB, a numerical and experimental study was performed in this article. For this purpose, a computational fluid dynamic model was developed by using the fluent software to describe the interaction between the solder jet and the PCB with the integrated circuits, and the multiphase method, volume of fluid, was also applied to track the solder-air interface boundary. The results obtained were numerically validated by using an experimental setup designed and built to this end. In general, the data obtained showed to be in good agreement and it was concluded that the force exerted by the solder wave is approximately 0.02 N.