Hot air soldering is to solder and desolder SMD devices. Hot air soldering uses a
non-contact soldering convection methodology unlike those contact soldering with a soldering iron.
Hot air soldering stations is the tool required for hot air
soldering. They transfer thermal energy to heat up solder
joint through hot air. It has outstanding performance. For example, hot air
soldering can offer even heating of the board area to be soldered. It
offers accurate temperature control. The hot air temperature can be
adjusted precisely and the temperature of the component will never
exceed the preset hot air temperature. It offers fast cooling which in
turn result in small-grained solder joints after reflow. Convection hot
air soldering is best suited for ceramic chip resistors, capacitors and
placement of fine pitch and ultra-fine pitch semi-conductors for its
non-contact and non-contaminating features. The hot contact soldering
tool need to physically touch the component or its tiny, fragile, and
weak leads which might bend the leads, tweak the SMD, or cause other
problems. Cross-contaminating is another problem of the conventional
contact style soldering. The contact tools may not completely get rid of
dirt, grime, residual flux and adhesives. Thus they may introducing
contamination to the PCB to be soldered.
