Inductive Heating for More Productive Soldering
Any advantage in the soldering process helps speed design, rework, and ultimately product time to market. So, a high-quality system with performance-enhancing features is more than nice to have; it’s essential.
Metcal has a 40-year history, and that experience shows in the design of its GT90 and GT120 soldering systems. These systems represent a company milestone, Metcal’s first-ever adjustable temperature soldering systems with patent-pending induction heating technology.
Inductive heating explained
Today’s soldering systems are powered by two different heating technologies: inductive and resistive. With inductive heating, also known as direct heating, an alternating current flows through a precise coil and generates a magnetic field. Placing a tip within the field induces eddy currents that create heat, produced where and only where these eddy currents flow. Customizing chemical composition alloy and optimizing the frequency allows the eddy current to flow to the outer surface resulting in less skin depth for instantaneous response.
In inductive soldering systems, the heater is physically a part of the tip, making it a one-piece heater and tip design. You can also use lower-cost tips for standard applications while still getting improved performance over competitive resistive systems. What does it all mean? In short, better performance with a range of impressive short- and long-term benefits.
More production capacity
The GT90 and GT120 utilize patented technology to combine inductive heating with adjustable temperature for faster time to temperature, greater temperature stability, and better thermal recovery. In side-by-side comparison studies against similar category competitive systems, the GT systems were shown to be 35% faster. These benefits drive better performance, faster throughput and, ultimately, greater production capacity. Higher quality solder joints also lower scrap yields and product returns. And adjustable temperature allows use of one tip for multiple temperature applications, lowering the cost of inventory for temperature-sensitive components.
Convenience and utility
A compact footprint and convenient external features, like an intuitive four-button user interface and USB port to power accessories and firmware updates ramp up the usability factor. A wide variety of cartridge and options, standby and sleep settings to increase tip life, and programmable password lock-out and temperature range limits add to the systems’ efficiency and economy-based design. Each system ships with a power station, handpiece, heater cartridge, power adapter, cartridge/tip remover, and work stand to support a variety of soldering and rework applications.
It’s time to adjust your expectations and exploit the advantages of adjustable temperature soldering. Explore how Metcal’s GT90 and GT120 can power design and rework needs of industrial electronics, power and energy, computer networking electronics, consumer electronics, mobile devices, and white goods.
