SEHO North America, Inc., a worldwide leading supplier of complete solutions for soldering processes and automated production lines, will highlight innovative solutions for cost-efficient high-mix production in Booth #1451 at the IPC APEX EXPO, scheduled to take place Feb. 4 - 6, 2020 at the San Diego Convention Center.

The wave soldering process remains an indispensable aspect of electronics manufacturing and provides a high potential for improvements in terms of flexibility and efficiency. Therefore, SEHO has introduced some new and innovative features to bring its MWS 2300 wave soldering system to a new level of productivity.

New pulsar emitters combined with precise PCB pass-monitoring allows remarkably higher flexibility in the preheat area. Configuring emitters individually instead of using entire segments helps to realize the shortest assembly distances, thus there is virtually no wait time required between assemblies with different heat energy demands. This new preheating concept allows for the cost-efficient manufacture of large series as well as a batch size of one. 

SEHO’s new automatic nozzle height adjustment provides higher flexibility in the soldering area if a large number of different variants are to be manufactured. The height of the solder nozzles can be adjusted via the software, which allows creating the optimal product-specific distance between the circuit board and solder nozzle. This new function thus provides independence from the workpiece carrier or assembly design without reducing cycle times. 

In addition, the automatic nozzle height adjustment is linked to the sector soldering feature, where the wave height and transport speed parameters for up to 16 circuit board sectors are individually programmable in the software. By adding the individual nozzle height at up to 16 different PCB sectors, this system provides a large process window and maximum flexibility as well as a component-specific defined solder peel-off.

Consistent height of the solder wave is crucial for wave soldering processes. However, so far it has not been possible to measure the wave height without interrupting the production process and the result is just a momentary snapshot that does not provide any information about necessary parameter modifications.

SEHO now presents the first automatic wave height measurement, built into the soldering section of the MWS 2300. This feature is based on a contact measurement that produces reliable results and processes for laminar as well as turbulent solder waves.

Based on the measuring results, the wave height is automatically regulated within adjustable tolerances. The system thereby ensures the same height across the entire wave width at any time. The complete logging of all measured values and parameters also provides a proof of quality of the manufactured products.

Additional highlights at the SEHO booth will be latest developments in the field of selective soldering and THT-AOI. Of course, SEHO’s most flexible selective soldering system, the SelectLine-C with integrated brush unit and AOI system, will be showcased as well.

The SEHO team is looking forward to welcoming visitors to Booth #1451 during the IPC APEX EXPO.