EUTECT Develops Regulated Wire Feed for Safe Piston and Laser Soldering

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EUTECT GmbH has developed a process-reliable handling technology for reproducible solder joints with wire-guided processes. The patented Sensitive Wire Feed (SWF) can be freely integrated and used for all applications in assembly and interconnection technology and can be combined with different process modules. It guarantees maximum reproducibility and process reliability precisely during piston and laser soldering.

Reproducible solder joints are the benchmark for all areas of electronic production. That also applies to challenging solder joints in assembly and interconnection technology.

"Our customers repeatedly presented us with the task that they want to apply a specific amount of solder when piston, laser, or induction soldering. Since no sensitive wire feed was obtainable on the market at that time, it was difficult to be able to guarantee this specific amount of solder and process reliability," said Matthias Fehrenbach, managing director of EUTECT.

The SWF feeds wires to process surfaces in a path- and force-monitored manner, thus defining the wire's impact force. The wire feed is stopped when this is achieved. Both the feed and withdrawal of the wire are monitored here. The wire feed's patented action-reaction principle enables this. Wire kinking is avoided using this function; and component and handling tolerances are compensated or detected. Reference points are likewise specified here in order to be able to transport controlled, reproducible amounts of wire.

The wire-reel holder is aligned flexibly so that various wire-reel positions as well as reel diameters can be used in the shortest possible time. The work angle can be freely selected in the process. The wire is stably introduced into the soldering process in a regulated manner using this intelligent sensor technology whereby a maximum of process reliability is constantly guaranteed. The C6 controller can record all of the process steps in this connection, which enables 100% data capture in terms of traceability.

The SWF can be freely integrated and can also be installed in systems not originating from EUTECT. "Many SWF modules have meanwhile been built into non-EUTECT machines," said Fehrenbach. The application doesn't matter here, because the SWF can be combined with arbitrary process modules via the EUTECT system adapter. The SWF is being used both in piston soldering as well as in the increasingly popular laser soldering. The sensitive wire feed can also be used with induction soldering.