For repair heat components and printed circuit boards gently

Heating the assembly during the rework process in a way that is gentle on the material and stress-free is crucial for processing assemblies successfully. It is important to ensure that the PCBs are heated in such a way that the component to be desoldered can be separated from the PCB. However, the PCB, as well as the adjacent components, may not be affected by the heat input. This is a challenge, especially with large 24-inch assemblies or thick PCBs, as both the top and bottom of the assembly must be heated.

Hybrid heating heads, which combine radiant heat with a convection component, are particularly suitable for the top side. Due to the additional energy input by hot air, the components are heated even faster and more precisely. The immediate surroundings of the component are also heated homogeneously. This ensures an efficient repair process. It needs to be emphasized that the air flow is kept low compared to hot gas systems, so that neighboring components are neither damaged by hot gas jets nor are remelted chips moved from their position. Sensitive areas on the board can be protected to keep them below melting temperature. These areas can be protected with air baffles, foil or heat-absorbing material. There are almost no limits to the applications: Metallic screen plates and SMD plugs and sockets can be processed just as easily as large BGA components, small MLFs, sensitive LEDs or 01005 chips.

For heating the bottom side of the PCB, individually controllable IR matrix heating elements are ideal. Especially with very large boards, each zone can be individually controlled and managed. Thus the power output per zone can be adjusted and complete zones can be switched off when they are not needed. Also additional settings can be implemented: like a full area heater, which homogeneously uses all segments or a full area heater with an increased heating power in the edge zone including a “Hot Spot” or “Cold Spot”, up to a segmented heater. With all possible settings, the individual temperature zones are adapted to the PCB and the components. In addition to hot spots, where the heat input is specifically directed at a component, a homogeneous total heat input can be set up across the entire PCB or cold zones can be defined to protect the PCB or components. The IR Matrix heating elements consist of medium wave infrared radiators and allow a gentle and homogeneous heat input.