Quantum 20 reflow oven

[trevwhite]

Hi All.

I just won this reflow oven on ebay. I am a bit concerned to ask this but does anyone have any experience with it?

I am hoping it will be okay for small batches of boards. It doesn't seem to have much to it but it looks pretty industrial. Also hoping it will heat up lead free paste okay. I dont know how old this machine is as there doesnt seem to be any information out there on the web.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QUANTUM-20-SMT-REFLOW-SOLDERING-OVEN-/281088886532?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=XcyiwpdtVPslivM2cImyHkTU9Pw%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Trev

[img]

I think I have used Quantum 30, which is probably a bigger version of yours. Great buy, congratulations! Looks like a fab toy.
As for reflowing, it can be done in a modded toaster oven, so a little experimenting on unimportant boards, and you are ready to go with the real boards.
I think these were made by Unifab and your oven often came as part of a mini-production setup, with a screenprinter and assembly desk-type thing. As far as I know, Unifab is no longer in business.

[trevwhite]

Thanks.

This one seems to only have two stages to its heating profile. The Quantum 30 has 3 stages. Do not know what difference it will make in practice.

A Quantum 30 went the other week on ebay for £731. We were outbid on that one. Hoping this Quantum 20 will do the job. I cant find any information about the machines. I don't know if the company went out of business. I don't even know how well these machines perform or what it is worth but hoping it will do the job.

Trev

[img]

I'll search a bit too and post findings here, if any.
Unifab was a well known name, so you definitely didn't buy rubbish. Does the seller have any manuals or info? Even if not, there is a short PDF manual for an Elektor oven on the net, just to get an overview.

[trevwhite]

Thanks for the responses and good of you to spend some time doing some searching, img.

I have done a bit of reflowing and understand the profiles, etc. I am a little concerned about it only being  2 stages. It states it is forced IR. With IR you usually need a settling time or soak as they call it. The Quantum 30 had this but the 20 doesn't. I am wondering how well it will cope with boards as they say IR isn't as good as convection.

I have asked the seller for manuals. I am collecting it some time this week so haven't had a play yet.

Considering the price of the Chinese rubbish, the price of it looks good. I just want to ensure it will do the job really. Hopefully it will.

Trev

[img]

IR is nowhere as good as convection. I hate IR. 

As for the Chinese rubbish like the 962, I can confidently say that my toaster oven is way better. 

Let's hope the seller helps out with docs and info.
Please post developments, experiments, impressions, etc. I am totally optimistic about your Quantum.

[trevwhite]

Hi

Got the oven finally and all seems to be working with it. I really like the oven but it is based on long wave infrared and I do not know how uneven the heating of the different components is. It seems from what I have read and tested that infrared heats different materials up at different rates depending on how well the material absorbs infrared. This can lead to component temperatures being okay but board silkscreen scorching. I need to do a bit more testing to confirm.

I did not get a manual with it but it took about a morning of experimentation and temperature measurements to get the oven profile. The heating controllers are OMRON E5CW and the datasheet is out there on the web. They have auto tuning PID inside which is impressive. They are really easy to use and the temperature control is very nice once they reach temperature.

The build quality of the oven feels very good and the calibration is great. You can calibrate the conveyor speed. It does take up more room than one of the small chinese ovens but I do really like it and being a conveyor belt type oven dos make it a lot easier to build 100 boards.

I shall add some more findings as I do them. One important note though is that I originally thought you would set the temperature on the controller of what you want and it would just work. This is not true as the heaters are several inches away from the board you have to set the temperature and then use a thermocouple to measure the temperature of the board. This means that the heat controller might show 300C but the board will only be heating up to 170C. So you really do have to calibrate the oven when you first get it.

[hobbyelectronics]

Hi,

I have quantum 30 reflow oven. You state "You can calibrate the conveyor speed"
I can see it has a motor control board inside controlling the 240V motor.

Do you have any extra information you can send me with the speed calibration procedure or method.

Thank you

[LaurenceW]

Ah, but can it do toast?

[nukie]

Who are you trying to murder ?