infrared narrow beam heaters ?

[exxos]

Hi all,

Trying to solder QSOP16 packages to a PCB by hand, bascially just have the
PCB cooking ontop of a infrared bar heater and simply bunging the IC ontop
when the solder melts... apart from getting the IC to align it does a good
job at soldering the IC, only problem is the heater burns the board with a
500W bar, I will connect my variac to it and try it at a lower power which
should help, though my question is, is there any infrared heaters which can
just give a narrow beam of about 5mm ? At least that way I can just heat the
IC area and not the entire PCB... Thinking also about any high wattage
lights is took down to a narrow beam would probably get hot enough to melt
solder....

Using a soldering iron is out of the question in the normal way, I could
invest in a flat tip and heat a square on the reverse side of the PCB, that
would probably work also....so.. anyone got any ideas for a narrow beam
heatsource ?


Cheers,
Chris

 

[CWatters]

Hi all,

Trying to solder QSOP16 packages to a PCB by hand,

Perhaps you could modify a hot air paint stripper to make a small nozzle?

 

[exxos]

Perhaps you could modify a hot air paint stripper to make a small nozzle?

Yeah, ive actually got a hot air soldering station for doing such things,
but since it blows , it blows the solder off the PCB, so you can only really
use a IR type thing... They do make 150W IR devices for SMT reworks, fear at
the cost of one of those things though!

Chris

 

[CWatters]

Yeah, ive actually got a hot air soldering station for doing such things,
but since it blows , it blows the solder off the PCB, so you can only really
use a IR type thing... They do make 150W IR devices for SMT reworks, fear at
the cost of one of those things though!

Perhaps you could make a large bit for a soldering iron from something that
doesn't wet out with solder easily - perhaps stainless steel or aluminium?
Use it to apply heat direct onto all the pins at once.

 

[Gerard Bok]

Trying to solder QSOP16 packages to a PCB by hand, bascially just have the
PCB cooking ontop of a infrared bar heater and simply bunging the IC ontop
when the solder melts... apart from getting the IC to align it does a good
job at soldering the IC, only problem is the heater burns the board with a
500W bar, I will connect my variac to it and try it at a lower power which
should help, though my question is, is there any infrared heaters which can
just give a narrow beam of about 5mm ? At least that way I can just heat the
IC area and not the entire PCB... Thinking also about any high wattage
lights is took down to a narrow beam would probably get hot enough to melt
solder....

Using a soldering iron is out of the question in the normal way, I could
invest in a flat tip and heat a square on the reverse side of the PCB, that
would probably work also....so.. anyone got any ideas for a narrow beam
heatsource ?

For such jobs I use a Weller Pyropen with a hot air nozzle.
(They come with 2 sizes hot air nozzles.)

And some proper solder cream, not the wire-type solder

 

[exxos]

For such jobs I use a Weller Pyropen with a hot air nozzle.
(They come with 2 sizes hot air nozzles.)

And some proper solder cream, not the wire-type solder

Yeah im using the solder paste at the moment, looking to get a none-flame
gas soldering iron type thing also, I cant use the paste with a blower since
it blows the paste everywhere. ah well.....

Chris

 

[Gerard Bok]

Yeah im using the solder paste at the moment, looking to get a none-flame
gas soldering iron type thing also, I cant use the paste with a blower since
it blows the paste everywhere. ah well.....

Then try a pyropen. There is neither a flame nor a blow anywhere
near 'blowing away the paste'.
Use the 1 mm nozzle.

 

[James T. White]

Yeah, ive actually got a hot air soldering station for doing such things,
but since it blows , it blows the solder off the PCB, so you can only really
use a IR type thing... They do make 150W IR devices for SMT reworks, fear at
the cost of one of those things though!

Have you tried turning down the air flow on that hot air station and using a
board pre-heater?

 

[exxos]

Have you tried turning down the air flow on that hot air station and using
a
board pre-heater?

any air flow messes it up, I have found that my 22W 12V lamp is the best
tool, simply put past on the tracks, plog IC on top, put board ontop of the
lamp for about 2 mins and leave to cool, worked first time!

Chris