Professional Grade Reflow Ovens

[Carrington]

Small quantities:
http://www.electronic-thingks.de/de/elektronikprodukte/loetzubehoer/galden-ls-230.html

And another project:
http://www.ibrtses.com/projects/vapourphasesoldering.html


Ovens, fryers, pans...   

[Carrington]

Other more:
  Reflow-Loeten-Selbstgemacht
  Autor (L. Schreyer)

 http://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/reflow-loeten-selbstgemacht#1480209

In the same post there are other interesting images of this oven (search downwards):

[mrpackethead]

How do you do boards with double sided placement?    Wont' the components fall of the side you've done, when you 're-dunk' it?  Or did i miss something.

[mikeselectricstuff]

How do you do boards with double sided placement?    Wont' the components fall of the side you've done, when you 're-dunk' it?  Or did i miss something.

The surface tension of the solder will usually hold parts in place during the second reflow pass.
Parts with a high ratio of weight to pad area may need glue dots, though the first option is to do these on the second pass if possible

[SeanB]

Bottom side components are done first, with an added screen of a thermosetting glue that holds them down. During reflow it cures while the solder is molten and holds the components in place. then you solder paste the top side, do the SMD placement and reflow again. While the bottom solder does melt again the glue holds the components in place.

You can see this as red dots under resistors and capacitors on boards with double sided loads. They are often also used to make a batch number as dots in a silkscreen box, or to indicate a version on a board that will have a few variants. Cheap and a no extra cost way to have it on a board in a very non removable way.

[stryker]

Bottom side components are done first, with an added screen of a thermosetting glue that holds them down.

Is that glue something that is cheap/easy to source in hobbiest volumes?

[rudydevolder]

Seems good and simple, well designed with cooling, sensors etc.: They have been working on this machine for 2 years now, they also have a mini and Jumbo model.

Now at introduction price (only 599 Euro's ! ), I saw the thing working on a demonstration day last Saturday, really awesome: also the price for the Galden is OK. Only 130 Euro's for 500 ml is a bargain!

http://www.imdes.de/condens_uk/condens_uk_pdf/mini-condens_it_price_list_uk_exhibition_21_06_2015.pdf

I ordered mine already via a distributor in Holland: http://www.eleshop.nl/vapour-phase-soldeeroven-mini-condens-it.html

[tautech]

Seems good and simple, well designed with cooling, sensors etc.: They have been working on this machine for 2 years now, they also have a mini and Jumbo model.

Now at introduction price (only 599 Euro's ! ), I saw the thing working on a demonstration day last Saturday, really awesome: also the price for the Galden is OK. Only 130 Euro's for 500 ml is a bargain!

http://www.imdes.de/condens_uk/condens_uk_pdf/mini-condens_it_price_list_uk_exhibition_21_06_2015.pdf

I ordered mine already via a distributor in Holland: http://www.eleshop.nl/vapour-phase-soldeeroven-mini-condens-it.html

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the links.

There is a thread here on just this subject:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/vapour-phase-soldering/

[John_ITIC]

Note: Sorry, I just saw the date of the OP! Anyways, leaving my post below for reference...

Try Novastar, might be a bit more than 2k (but not much more!).
Depends on how basic you want to go.

http://www.ddmnovastar.com/reflow-ovens

I actually bought a Novastar for my prototyping work. I looked hard and long before pulling the trigger. Most ovens appear to be IR-based, which means that they have very little thermal mass, no convection heating and no circulation fan. This causes trouble with uneven heating, burnt connectors and all the other very known issues. All Chinese reflow ovens appear to be IR based.

Specifically, I have the below GF-C2-HT hotplate-based reflow oven. It took me a while to figure out how to achieve the proper reflow temperature curve since the heaters heat the hot plate and, subsequently, the thing takes a good 30 minutes to heat up! The trick is to fully heat the oven to some 300 degrees C and then put in the board with stand-offs such that it doesn't sit directly on the hot plate. With the circulation fans going, the board will be evenly heated on both sides, the correct temperature curve will be achieved and boards will be reflowed in about 5-6 minutes.

Note that pre-heating the oven to 300 deg C allows the target temperature to be reached in about 5 minutes. If only heated to 250 degs C, the ramp-up takes too long and the whole reflow temperature curve will be drawn out in time.

http://www.ddmnovastar.com/reflow-ovens/low-volume/gf-c2-ht-reflow-ovens

Now, the whole hot-plate concept seems a bit primitive compared to some more modern reflow ovens. However, I have temperature profiled the above method and it is good enough for prototype board assembly. The temperature curve is not exactly like the ramped reflow curve, more like a "capacitor charging curve". I looked at the time spent in each zone (pre-heat, soak, reflow) and my oven is fairly accurate. I think the GF-C2-HT is over $4K but I found mine for $2K new on Ebay so overall a good compromise. In addition, I now have a large hot-plate, which can be useful.

[rx8pilot]

I spent about $3k on a used JEM-310 batch oven. It has been great for prototypes and pilot runs. Clam shell design with top window, convection, 2 probes, 5 zone controller with hundreds of memory slots, Pretty good heat distribution, lead-free capable, very consistent. Being able to look down at the PCB is a huge plus!

Fiddling with toaster ovens, hot plates, and the various IR based Chinese options would have sent me to an early grave. After spending hours getting a new PCB populated, I want it to re-flow perfectly every time with out fail. I have now done thousands of cycles and it gives me the expected result every time.

[Neganur]

Seems good and simple, well designed with cooling, sensors etc.: They have been working on this machine for 2 years now, they also have a mini and Jumbo model.

Now at introduction price (only 599 Euro's ! ), I saw the thing working on a demonstration day last Saturday, really awesome: also the price for the Galden is OK. Only 130 Euro's for 500 ml is a bargain!

http://www.imdes.de/condens_uk/condens_uk_pdf/mini-condens_it_price_list_uk_exhibition_21_06_2015.pdf

I ordered mine already via a distributor in Holland: http://www.eleshop.nl/vapour-phase-soldeeroven-mini-condens-it.html

Any update on this by the way? There is too little information out there for my taste, no user manual to look at either.
Looks like a beefed up ultrasonic bath with see-through lid. Air cooled...?

[rudydevolder]

I received my oven just before new year. Pity I didn't received it earlier because I am out of the country for 6 months now. So I couldn't test.
Yes it's air cooled, and it heats up quickly to the set vapour temperature of the Galden wich is 210 degrees Celsius and cools down quickly after a few minutes if the sensor sensed the high temperature of the raising vapour.
There's a display for the timer and current temperature. There's also a small manual with it, but I can't upload because I am out until June. But you could ask at the guys from Eleshop.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G850F met Tapatalk

[John_ITIC]

Try Novastar, might be a bit more than 2k (but not much more!).
Depends on how basic you want to go.

http://www.ddmnovastar.com/reflow-ovens

I have one of these. Picked up for $2K on Ebay: http://www.ddmnovastar.com/reflow-ovens/low-volume/gf-c2-ht-reflow-ovens

Not the highest quality, skimpy manual etc but at long as you are able to achieve the correct reflow temperature curve with circulated air then it will do the job. The GF-C2-HT must be heated to some 300 degrees (C), the board put into the oven and the circulation started. The circulated air will then heat up the board fairly correctly per the lead-free temperature curve.

Edit: See my post from "October 14, 2015, 06:24:01 AM".

[vikramslm@rocketmail.com]

We have a T962C and we use it for decent volume production. The output quality is pretty good with only minor issues which are touched up manually (Mostly misaligned parts and tombstones due to slightly uneven heating)

I'm thinking of adding a fan to produce convection for more even heating. But where to find a fan that can work at 220 Degrees Celsius??

Any ideas would be helpful.

Also any ideas on the placement of the fan?

[Prime]

We had an LPKF protoflow S at my old job. Worked reasonably well. Never bothered to use the thermo-couples and software that came with it, but it was possible to create a reflow profile. Door was windowed and motorised which stopped components being knocked off as you closed the door.

[Cerebus]

I'm thinking of adding a fan to produce convection for more even heating. But where to find a fan that can work at 220 Degrees Celsius??

How about a fan designed for a domestic fan oven? Ought to be cheap and widely available.

[MAelektronik]

I use a T962A. Had issues with debaunce buttons on the front. Worst was that it did'nt have same temperature on first PCB reflow and later reflows. I upgraded firmware. And modified with 1-wire temperature sensor for cold junction compensation. Now the oven finaly works much better.
Link:
https://github.com/UnifiedEngineering/T-962-improvements/wiki