Metal fusion bonding – Including means to apply flux or filler to work or applicator – By partial or total immersion of work or applicator into liquid
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-19
2004-04-20
Dunn, Tom (Department: 1725)
Metal fusion bonding
Including means to apply flux or filler to work or applicator
By partial or total immersion of work or applicator into liquid
C228S009000, C228S260000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06722554
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a soldering apparatus which performs soldering by jetting out streams of molten solder accumulated in a solder bath and permitting solder to come in contact with a piece to be soldered.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various types of soldering apparatuses.
FIG. 1
shows an example of an apparatus using a jet stream nozzle
12
of the fillet up nozzle type disposed in a solder bath
3
.
The structure of the principal section around the fillet up nozzles (
12
a
and
12
b
) of the soldering apparatus
1
a
is made up of the solder bath
3
accumulating solder
7
, heating means
13
for the solder
7
, a jet-stream nozzle
12
a
of the primary side disposed in the solder bath
3
, and a jet-stream nozzle
12
b
of the secondary side of the fillet up nozzle type or the like, as illustrated. Note that a conveyor
5
a
slanted upward in the direction of travel is provided above the jet-stream nozzle
12
a
of the primary side and the jet-stream nozzle
12
b
of the secondary side, a mounted substrate
4
to be soldered being attached to this conveyor
5
a.
FIG. 2
schematically shows the jet-streaming condition of solder from the secondary side jet-stream nozzle
12
b
of the type presented in FIG.
1
. This secondary side jet-stream nozzle
12
b
consists essentially of a front former
14
and a rear former
15
, with the solder in the solder bath
3
of
FIG. 1
being sent to between the front former
14
and the rear former
15
by a pump or a similar device not illustrated herein, and the solder thus sent being separated by the front former
14
and the rear former
15
into the direction reverse to the direction of travel of the conveyor
5
a
and into the direction positive thereto, as shown above.
Solder streams
16
and
17
separated before and after this process run into contact point A and contact point B relative to the mounted substrate
4
and flow out. The point A and the point B are called the peel back points of the solder stream, and, the length between A and B is called the DIP length, over which the solder
7
migrates and settles on the electrodes of the mounted substrate
4
and solder land, whereby the soldering process is implemented.
As described above, as to improve the soldering quality of the mounted substrate
4
, it is necessary to control various conditions at each section of the soldering apparatus such as a conveying speed of the conveyor
5
a
proper for the type of solder, a temperature of the solder bath
3
, a flux specific gravity, a preheater temperature, and a post-soldering cooling condition, all at optimum levels. Above all, most critical conditions include a flow speed, waveform, and wave amplitude of the jet stream of the solder.
Since the flow speed, the waveform, and the wave amplitude of the jet stream of the solder from the jet-stream nozzle vary with small variations in height, position and the like of the front former
14
and the rear former
15
, it becomes necessary to optimize position, angle , etc. of the front former
14
and the rear former
15
by taking into consideration such factors as the condition at each portion of the apparatus at a given moment and the soldering conditions of the mounted substrate.
However, inasmuch as the prior art adjustments of the front and rear formers
14
and
15
of the jet-stream nozzles
12
a
and
12
b
are manually performed by using nuts and screws, conventional practice has been for the skilled worker to adjust the position and angle of each portion of the nozzle to the optimum levels while visually checking the finish status of the soldering results.
Consequently, the practice of manually adjusting the nozzles has made making micro-adjustments an extremely arduous task, resulting in problems of disparate soldering quality, low product yield, and low productivity.
Another problem is that it is impossible to perform timely controlling while moving the mounted substrate, so that application of optimum soldering conditions requires time. There is a further complication in that reproduction of the optimum soldering conditions is not an easy matter when a machine change is made.
Likewise, in the case in which the above-mentioned soldering apparatus is installed in production facilities spread across many areas of the country, the quality of soldering deteriorates in a particular facility in an area where skilled workers are hard to find, thus creating a situation where it is difficult to assure stable productivity throughout all related production facilities.
Moreover, in recent years, environmental problems have given rise to a demand for switching to lead-free soldering, thereby bringing about prospects of different soldering conditions than those thus far known in regard to the flux used, soldering properties and other factors, narrower margin of optimum soldering conditions than before, and difficulty of performing good soldering, wherefore it is considered likely that the problems enumerated above may become a reality to make the maintenance and control of soldering quality more and more difficult.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to solving these problems, and it is preferable to provide a soldering apparatus which can perform timely micro-adjustments of the jet-stream nozzle in a short period of time with good accuracy, which contributes to improving the quality of soldering, improving workability, and improving operating efficiency, which can be operated and controlled by an operator with a relatively low degree of proficiency, and which can smoothly cope with any change in the apparatus.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a soldering apparatus is provided, which can perform timely control of the optimum soldering conditions and do so from a remote place, and from which an improved quality of soldering can be obtained even by an operator with a relatively low degree of proficiency.
The soldering apparatus of the present invention is a soldering apparatus which operates to let molten solder accumulated in the solder bath to jet out a stream for soldering a piece to be soldered while the piece is conveyed in a predetermined direction, the apparatus including a jet-stream nozzle jetting out streams of molten solder in the solder bath, and having an end that can turn, drive means for driving a relative position of the end of the jet-stream nozzle to a predetermined position relative to the piece to be soldered, and control means for outputting the control signal to the drive means according to such predetermined position.
The jet-stream nozzle with the end is composed of a front former disposed at the end of the nozzle body on the upstream side of the conveying direction of the piece to be soldered and a rear former disposed at the end of the nozzle body on the downstream side of the conveying direction of the piece to be soldered, at least one of either the front former or the rear former being set up in such a way so as to be moved by the drive means receiving the control signal.
The drive means has a first drive means for driving the front former so that the front former is in a predetermined position and angle relative to the piece to be soldered.
The drive means is also made up of a second drive means for driving the rear former so that the rear former is in a predetermined position and angle relative to the piece to be soldered.
The soldering apparatus of the present invention further includes an image capture means for acquiring images of the jet-streaming condition of molten solder from the jet-stream nozzle and display means for displaying a condition of the jet-streaming of the molten solder, images of which are captured by the image capture means.
The control means stores other soldering conditions, together with the position of the end of the jet-stream nozzle relative to the piece to be soldered for each piece to be soldered.
The soldering apparatus of the present invention further includes second control means connected to the fi
Cooke Colleen P.
Dunn Tom
Kananen, Esq. Ronald P.
Rader & Fishman & Grauer, PLLC
Sony Corporation
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