Combination product cooling and flux management apparatus

Abstract

A combination product cooling and flux management apparatus is mounted above a reflow soldering oven. The apparatus has a sealed housing with four openings: an ambient air inlet, an ambient air outlet, a recirculating gas inlet and a recirculating gas outlet. The recirculating gas blower is mounted in a first end of the housing and draws air into the recirculating gas inlet, through a recirculating gas side of a gas-to-gas heat exchanger and out the recirculating gas outlet, where it is recirculated through a product cooling chamber and back into the recirculating gas inlet. The ambient air blower is mounted in a second end of the housing and draws air into the ambient air inlet, through an ambient air side of the gas-to-gas heat exchanger and out the ambient air outlet to the surrounding atmosphere. The gas-to-gas heat exchanger is mounted between the blowers within the housing and has a pleated serpentine heat transfer surface, which are vertically oriented and define a bottomless recirculating gas side of the heat exchanger. Heat exchanger endplates, combined with the pleated heat exchanger surface define a sealed barrier between the recirculating gas and the ambient air. The pleated surface serves as a common wall between the gas flows and cools the recirculating gas to a temperature where the flux entrapped in the recirculating gas condenses on the pleated surface and drips into a drip collector plate mounted below the heat exchanger.