Wave Soldering: The Efficiency of Debridging with a Hot‐air Knife

This paper describes the results of experiments to remove short circuits after wave soldering Surface Mounted Devices (SMDs), using an air‐knife debridging system. The air knife can improve the results of wave soldering by removing short circuits which otherwise cannot be removed by adjusting the solder waves; however, the knife must be properly adjusted. Furthermore, it appears that the most serious problem found by using the air knife is the formation of solder balls. The number of these can be reduced if a suitable agent is added to the second wave of the soldering machine, which makes the air knife more or less superfluous.