What is the Difference between Reflow Soldering and Wave Soldering

Reflow soldering and wave soldering are 2 common soldering methods in PCBA processing. What is their role in PCBA processing? What’s the differences?

What is Reflow Soldering?

It is to heat and melt the solder paste pre-applied on the pad, and the electronic component pins or welding ends on the pad are electrically interconnected with the pad on the PCB, so as to achieve the purpose of soldering electronic components on the PCB board. Reflow soldering is generally divided into preheating zone, heating zone and cooling zone.

What is wave Soldering?

It is to use a pump to spray the molten solder into a wave soldering, and then pass the pins of the electronic components to be soldered through the wave soldering to realize the electrical interconnection of the electronic components and the PCB board. Wave soldering is divided into four parts: spraying, preheating, tin furnace and cooling.

The difference between wave soldering and reflow soldering:

1. Reflow soldering is the formation of high temperature hot air to reflow and melt solder to solder components; Wave soldering is to form molten solder into a solder wave to solder components.

2. During reflow soldering, the PCB already has solder before being put into the furnace, and it is only needs to melt the solder paste coated on the PCB by soldering; During wave soldering, there is no solder on the PCB before it is put into the furnace. It is the solder wave generated by the soldering machine that applies the pads that need to be soldered.

3. Reflow soldering is suitable for SMT electronic components, and wave soldering is suitable for lead electric components.

4. Welding process is different:

The process of reflow soldering: Printing Solder Paste — Mounting Components — Reflow Soldering — Cleaning

The process of wave soldering: Plug-in — Coating flux — Preheating — Wave Soldering — Removing Edges — Inspection

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