Electrovert Ltd.

Marcel Drouin

Armin Rahn

William H Down

Ralph W Woodgate

Matthew J Rudzicz

John F Buszard

Elie Makhoul

Sabi Avramescu

A multi stage heater heats items on a conveyor so that they follow a predetermined temperature profile. The heater is used for printed circuit boards or the like when heated for soldering and avoids thermal gradients that can occur with heating different materials. The heater has a first heater for applying a first quantity of heat to items on the conveyor, a temperature sensing device for determining temperature of items leaving the first heater, a second heater downstream of the first heater and a control system which compares signals from the temperature sensing device with a predetermined temperataure profile to produce a first control output to control the first heater and a second control output to control the second heater so that items passing through the heater follow the predetermined temperature profile.

Multi stage heater

Automatic wave solder apparatus in which printed circuit boards are passed over a wave soldering section to apply solder to exposed metallic surfaces on the undersides of the surface of the board. A weir is attached to the exit side of a discharge nozzle for the solder wave which is spring loaded upwards for engagement with a stop member. The solder pot assembly may be lowered and swung out of a circuit board conveyor path for cleaning and both front plate and rear plate members on each side of the discharge nozzle are hinged so they can be raised for cleaning when the solder pot assembly is lowered. The stop member permits the discharge nozzle to be raised to different heights, but retains the spring loaded weir at the same height.

Solder pot for wave soldering machine

Automatic wave solder apparatus having a fluxer section, preheater section and wave soldering section through which circuit boards are passed by a conveyor. All of the major process parameters are monitored by a microprocessor. One specific parameter controlled is the temperature of the boards exiting from the preheater system. Preheating is carried out by two axially spaced banks of heaters, the upstream one supplying the major quantity of heat and the downstream one supplying sufficient heat to boost the temperature to the desired value. A pyrometer located in the zone between the two banks of heaters measures the heat radiated from the boards and this information is converted by the microprocessor to an appropriate instruction to the second bank of heaters. The soldering section has a solder pot assembly particularly adapted to the automatic nature of the apparatus. The pot can be jacked to the correct height according to the length of leads projecting from the boards under control of the microprocessor. Irrespective of the solder pot height the structure of the solder nozzle ensures constant values for the rear flowing portion of the wave. The pot may be swung out for cleaning.

Automatic wave soldering machine

Growing community of inventors

St. Hubert, Canada

Marcel Drouin