Of course, such generators offer independence from nitrogen suppliers, and to a certain degree also offer a cost advantage. While oxygen molecules and other air components are absorbed, nitrogen molecules (the desired product) pass through and are collected in a tank.

Basically these generators use compressed air that is guided through a carbon molecular sieve. Gas purity – typically indicated in volume percent (vol%) – plays a major role with regards to soldering quality.Īs an alternative to conventional liquid gas supply, nitrogen generators can be used which are able to produce purities from class 2.5 to class 5.0. Air is liquefied by cooling it down and then its constituent elements are obtained by fractional distillation.

For the extraction of nitrogen by air fractionation the industry makes use of the different boiling temperatures of the air components. Nitrogen is the main ingredient of air with 78.08 vol%. Inert gases are used to avoid unwanted reactions with atmospheric oxygen, which primarily results in oxidation of metal surfaces. This enables cost reduction on repair/rework, thus benefitting overall profitability. While at first sight the cost of inert gas may seem to raise total production costs, it also has to be taken into account that the quality of solder connections will be improved remarkably if the soldering process is performed in an oxygen-deficient environment. Several issues must be considered when deciding on the use of inert gas. All of these issues are mitigated when using inert atmosphere since cleaning of solder and flux residues from printed circuit boards (PCB) can be avoided. Other factors include higher process temperatures in lead-free applications, increased risk of oxidation as well as environmental issues. Tightening of pad and conductor pitches, and requirements for high-quality solder connections. Soldering in a nitrogen atmosphere has increased in popularity in recent years, owing largely to the ongoing miniaturisation of assemblies, the resulting By Heike Schlessmann and Ronny Horn, SEHO Systems.

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