The 5 Best Reflow Ovens in the Market

Reflow ovens have seen tremendous evolution over the years, starting from Infrared heating technology to more modern iterations of closed-loop convection. ELE Times brings to you the best reflow ovens in the market today:

One of the most important constituents of a PCB Assembly line are reflow ovens. It is inside a reflow oven that the thermal processing of solder paste on PCBs take place. Reflow ovens come in almost shapes and sizes and are designed for both small and large scale operations. For large scale operations, which is our target sector in this particular story, the most commonly used reflow ovens are inline or conveyor belt ovens.

Jaguar R8

Inputs by Venu N Vaishnav, Marketing Director, Chipmax Designs Pvt. Ltd.

What is your top of the line Reflow Oven? Please give a brief account with features and technical specifications.

The 8 zone Lead Free oven, Model R8 is our top end reflow oven. The key features of the Model R8 are:

• It’s an economy model compared with other EU/US makes.
• Supports wide range of Temperature profiles
• Flexibility to split the Chain system to accommodate two types of boards at a time
• Extra sealing of the Heating zones prevents the heat loss in each zones to surroundings ensures the perfect welding
• Additional Flux Collection points in between Zones to ensure the quality of emission to protect environment
• Optional Nitrogen cooling system for fast cooling

What all features you are planning to add to your future Reflow Ovens?

We are planning to do R&D on a Vapour phase oven.

Why should an EMS firm opt for your company’s Reflow Ovens rather than that of your competition?

We ensure best price, quality, and support

Which application in particular is this Reflow Oven targeted at?

All types of LED boards, Drivers, Double sided/Multi-layer boards for Embedded, GPS, UPS, Power Supply, ATM control cards etc.

What service/support/offering do you have on the device?

We are equipped with all spares and parts and well-trained engineers available round the clock to support customers.

Available from: Chipmax 

Pyramax Zero Turn Series

Inputs by SP Arora, Director Operations & Sales, Innotronics Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 

What is your top of the line Reflow Oven? Please give a brief account with features and technical specifications.

SP Arora: We offer BTU’s Pyramax Zero Turn series of reflow ovens, which are among the best offerings in the market, not only in India, but globally. Some of the top features of the Zero Turn Series are:

Flux Management System

BTU’s patented Flux Management System traps flux residue from the process chamber,preventing it from settling within the oven,leading to increased uptime and lower cost-of-ownership.

Innovative Cooling System

BTU’s unique clam shell air or water-cooling design moves the cooling media away from the process chamber, where it can be easily accessed for maintenance.

Closed Loop Convection

BTU’s exclusive Closed Loop Convection Control provides maximum flexibility in process control.

Energy Pilot

Energy Pilot software enables energy savings by using product tracking technology to modify oven performance during gaps in production.

Lead Free

Process-Guaranteed BTU’s repeatable process control eases the transition to lead-free.

Why should an EMS firm opt for your company’s Reflow Ovens rather than that of your competition? 

SP Arora: Pyramax solder reflow ovens are designed and built to master today’s lead-free processes,and the challenges of tomorrow. With their unparalleled combination of thermal performance,versatility, and value, they set the industry standard for world class performance. Pyramax provides optimized lead-free processing, boosting productivity and efficiency.BTU’s exclusive closed loop convection control,provides precise heating and cooling control,constant heat transfer, maximum process control and reduced nitrogen consumption adding up to the lowest Cost of Ownership in the industry.

Which application in particular is this Reflow Oven targeted at?

SP Arora: All kinds of PCB Assembly lines.

What service/support/offering do you have on the device?

SP Arora: BTU’s quality products are backed by its Industry leading comprehensive warranty.

• 3 years system
• 1 year labor

To enhance uptime the Pyramax is supported by BTU’s 24-hour, 7-Day Worldwide customer support, and electronic user documentation.

Available from: Innotronics Technologies

JT RS-800II-N

Inputs by Sreeram Srinivasan, CEO, Syrma Technology Pvt Ltd

What is your top of the line Reflow Oven? Please give a brief account with features and technical specifications.

Sreeram Srinivasan: Our reflow ovens in Bawal and RRW Chennai state-of-art conventional air flow ovens with 8 Heating zones and 2 Cooling zones that can handle 400mm width PCBAs. These ovens have exclusive PCBA centre support for the extended PCB support to avoid PCB warpage. On line temperature monitoring for the PCBAs that are subjected to thermal profile. These machines can handle PCBs with thickness ranging from 0.5mm to 4mm. Component clearance – Top 30 mm / Bottom 25 mm. These reflow machines are N2(Nitrogen) enabled – To have excellent soldering quality for Medical, Aeronautical, Defence products.

Which application in particular is this Reflow Oven targeted at?

Sreeram Srinivasan: Syrma promotes Lead-free soldering process across all its EMS facility and the Reflow ovens that are used in Syrma are Lead Free soldering process compatible and meet ROHS standards with enhanced N2 environment for best solder ability.

What service/support/offering do you have on the device?

Sreeram Srinivasan: Online reflow profiling monitoring with CPK control and serial number wise reflow profile data analysis to ensure each PCBA has been produced with the best soldering quality. Low Power Consumption due to large aluminium alloy heat Plates, Low Carbon Emission, and Independent Air Velocity Control Advanced flux management and cooling system on N2 ovens with dual independent heat exchangers for maximum cooling effect. It also includes external water chillers for (N2) oven 

Konark 1020 – 10-zone reflow oven

Write up by Aditya Ratnaparkhi, Executive Director, EMST Marketing Pvt. Ltd.

To cater to versatile needs of the industry and various complex PCB types, EMS Technologies has launched 10-zone reflow oven Konark 1020. This machine is result of 25 years of manufacturing experience over wave soldering, stencil printers, reflow ovens and continuous in-house Research & Development.

Konark 1020 machine Features

1. Konark 1020 machine is with PC Windows 10 operating system that provides pull-down menus.
2. Data logging traceability feature enables the user to select the important process parameters for which data collection is desired, either board-based or time-based
3. Security password protection allows only authorized personnel to make changes to recipes
4. Adjustable blower speed
5. Rails width adjustment for dual conveyor.
6. Dual conveyor with independent speed control with VFD.
7. PCB drop alarm.
8. Automatic chain lubrication
9. PID closed loop temperature control + SSR

Advantages 

1. Featuring 10-heating zone and 2-cooling zones
2. Dual conveyor built-in option offers flexibility in manufacturing resulting in higher throughput
3. Remote Diagnostics
4. All India widespread service network catering to needs of customers
5. In-house Design & Development resulting in solutions tailored to customer needs

Available from: EMST Marketing

Ersa HOTFLOW Reflow Oven Series

Inputs by Kumud Tyagi, Bergen Associates Pvt Ltd

What is your top of the line Reflow Oven? Please give a brief account with features and technical specifications.

Kumud Tyagi: Ersa Germany make HOTFLOW Reflow oven series comes with state of the art technology for trouble free manufacturing.

Why should an EMS firm opt for your company’s Reflow Ovens rather than that of your competition?

Kumud Tyagi: Ready for MES and Industry 4.0 compliance; systems meet with highest quality certification.

What service/support/offering do you have on the device?

Kumud Tyagi: Service support provided by Bergen Associates Pvt Ltd in India, machines are designed to manufacture simple to complex electronics inline or standalone in SMT Production area.

Available from: Bergen Associates

HOW ARE REFLOW OVENS CONFIGURED?

Inline reflow ovens are configured with a number of heating zones followed by cooling section(s). Depending on the length and throughput of the oven there may be few zones, 8 or less, or many zones, 12 or more. During the reflow process the zones are programmed with a thermal set point. This set point corresponds to the temperature the circuit board should be exposed to as it passes through that zone.  The program with the temperatures for all of the zones, as well as the belt speed, is referred to as “the recipe”.  The temperature that the board “sees” as it is processed through the oven is called “the profile”. The recipe is optimized to achieve the profile that the solder manufacturer has specified for the solder paste that is used on the board. A number of specifications are employed including a maximum and minimum peak temperature, Flux Activation Time (FAT), Time Above Liquidus (TAL), heating and cooling ramp rates, etc.

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