Most men have used a soldering iron at least once in their lives. Many people use it regularly for soldering wires, minor repairs to electrical wiring or household appliances. But for working with multicomponent and compact electrical circuits, a conventional soldering iron is not enough. The presence in the boards of modern technology of microcircuits that are sensitive to heat and mechanical stress of elements requires more accurate tools with the ability to adjust parameters.
Among the search results for the queries "buy soldering station" or "buy soldering equipment" you can find a large number of models, for example, such as here https://oracul.kiev.ua/payalnoe-oborudovanie/payalnaya-stantsiya , differing not only in quality or price, but also by the very principle of work. Soldering tools have a rather narrow specialization. Each specific model is designed to work with a specific type of boards and meets the requirements of the elements installed in them. Professional stations can contain multiple instruments and have a wide range of adjustments.
Three types of devices are used for mounting and dismounting components of electrical circuits:
Contact,
Hot air,
Infrared.
Contact soldering
By the principle of operation, contact stations are similar to conventional soldering irons. The main difference is the possibility of automatic thermal stabilization. They are devoid of an important drawback: local overheating of the board segment and components. The built-in processor adjusts the heating level at the time of each manipulation, preventing uncontrolled temperature rise. This reduced the maximum power of the devices to 60 W. Lead-free soldering tools can power up to 150W.
The contact method is simple and does not require special knowledge to operate the station. Universal and demountable models can be completed with additional devices. For example, to clean the board from solder residues, a compressor is installed in the block, which creates an intake air flow in the nozzle.
Hot air soldering
Non-contact type of soldering, which allows you to work with SMD-elements and BGA chips of small and medium sizes. During operation, the tool does not directly contact the solder and the board. Heating occurs under the action of a directed flow of heated air. Its temperature is sufficient to work with not only conventional, but also refractory lead-free solder.
Hot air stations allow high-quality soldering of components in places that are hard to reach for a contact tool. They are widely used in mobile repair shops
