Heating characteristics of convection reflow ovens

The inhomogeneous temperature distribution in the reflow oven can cause soldering failures. In this project, we investigate how the construction of a convection reflow oven has an affect on its heating characteristics. In the convection reflow oven itself, the heating capability is mainly dependent on the heat transfer coefficient, which in turn is mostly determined by the gas flow parameters. Therefore, we study how the construction of the reflow oven affects the flow of gas in the oven. Our conclusions are then verified with experimental results. During our experiments, temperature changes were measured at different points located around the centre of the processing area in the oven. From this data, the 3D directional characteristics of the heat transfer coefficient was calculated using the heat equation of the investigated reflow oven. We consider that our results are important for the effective thermal modelling of the reflow soldering process [B. Illés, G. Harsányi, 3D Thermal model to investigate component displacement phenomenon during reflow soldering, Microelectronics Reliability 48 (2008) 1062–1068] and are also useful when calibrating and designing reflow ovens. During our work, we examine the latest reflow ovens constructed with the nozzle-matrix blower system.