INTRODUCTION
In today’s society, environmental protection has become a global concern. With the acceleration of industrialization, the waste, pollutants and energy consumption generated in the manufacturing process not only affect the ecosystem, but also pose a threat to human health, so environmental protection is a top priority.
SMT reflow oven not only plays a central role in ensuring the soldering quality of electronic components, but is also directly related to production efficiency and cost control. The traditional reflow soldering process is often accompanied by high energy consumption and the use of hazardous substances, so how to promote environmental protection measures in this field has become a top priority.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how to integrate environmental protection concepts into the reflow oven process, and to promote the realization of green manufacturing through the selection of environmentally friendly materials, enhancement of energy efficiency and effective waste management.
I. Background of environmental manufacturing
1. Global environmental trends
1.2 What is green manufacturing?
Green manufacturing technology refers to a modern manufacturing model that comprehensively considers environmental impact and resource efficiency under the premise of ensuring the function, quality and cost of products. It makes products produce no environmental pollution or minimize environmental pollution throughout the product life cycle from design, manufacture, use to end-of-life, meets the requirements of environmental protection, is harmless to the ecological environment or does very little harm, saves resources and energy, and results in the highest utilization of resources and the lowest consumption of energy.
1.2 Promotion by international organizations and policies, such as the Paris Agreement
In the global efforts to address climate change and environmental issues, the promotion of international organizations and policies plays a crucial role. Among them, the Paris Agreement was reached in 2015 in Paris, France. The agreement aims to limit the increase in global average temperature to 2 degrees Celsius through joint efforts and sets stricter targets for limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The core concept of the Paris Agreement emphasizes the responsibilities and obligations of countries in terms of emissions reduction, renewable energy development and climate adaptation. This agreement not only sets emission reduction targets for national governments, but also encourages the active participation of businesses and other stakeholders to drive the transition of industries towards sustainability. This change in the policy environment has prompted the manufacturing industry to re-examine its production processes in order to reduce its consumption of natural resources and environmental impact.
2. Environmental impacts of manufacturing
2.1 Wastes and Pollutants Generated in the Production Processes
The manufacturing industry emits a large amount of toxic and harmful substances in the production process, such as carbon dioxide, ammonia oxides, sulfides, heavy metals, toxic organic substances, etc. These substances will bring serious pollution impacts on the environment, including air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, noise pollution, etc.
2.2 Resource consumption and energy efficiency
Manufacturing industry accounts for a relatively high proportion of energy consumption. According to statistics, the manufacturing industry accounts for about 30% of the total global energy consumption. The high energy consumption of the manufacturing industry is mainly concentrated in the metal, chemical, textile and machinery manufacturing industries. These industries use large amounts of energy resources such as electricity, natural gas and oil to support production activities.
II. Overview of Reflow Soldering Oven Process
1. Basic Principles of Reflow Soldering Oven
1.1 Introduction to the working mechanism of reflow soldering oven
Reflow soldering melts and reflows the solder paste through high temperature, thus forming a high-quality solder joint on the PCB and ensuring a stable connection of electronic components. The solder paste melts and wets the soldered end surfaces of the components and the PCB pads during the heating process, forming an ideal solder joint.
1.2 Application of reflow oven in electronic assembly
- Computer boards: The components on the various boards inside the computer are soldered to the circuit boards through reflow soldering technology.
- Cell phone motherboard: the components on the motherboard of the cell phone are also welded by reflow soldering technology.
- Hybrid integrated circuit boards: reflow soldering process is also widely used in the assembly of hybrid integrated circuit boards
2 The environmental impact of traditional reflow soldering machine
2.1 Materials and Chemicals Used
Many of the solder and fluxes used in the conventional reflow soldering process contain hazardous substances. For example, many conventional solders contain lead, a heavy metal that is potentially hazardous to human health and can not only harm workers, but can also enter the ecosystem and affect soil and water sources. In addition, certain fluxes, cleaners and series of chemicals may contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are released into the air during the production process, causing air pollution and potentially causing respiratory diseases and other health problems.
2.2 Waste generated and its disposal problems
Waste associated with conventional reflow soldering mainly consists of containers of solder residues, sewage and other chemicals. These wastes often pose a threat to the environment because their components may be toxic or difficult to degrade. Especially if not handled properly, these wastes may be dumped in landfills or discharged into water bodies, contaminating soil and water sources and disrupting the ecological balance.
III. The realization of green reflow soldering strategy
1. Selection of environmentally friendly materials
1.1 Lead-free solder and its environmental advantages
Environmental protection solder is currently more commonly used one, it reduces the production of harmful gases by reducing the content of lead. In addition, there are some new types of environmentally friendly solder, such as tin-copper solder, which can effectively reduce harmful gas emissions during the soldering process.
1.2 Use of Green Cleaners and Degreasers
Recent years have produced liquid water-based cleaning agents to replace solvent-based cleaning agent operations, greatly improving the removal effect and cleaning ability. It also improves the safety of the operation. Often water-based cleaning agents are non-flammable, good environmental characteristics, etc., to clean the reflow oven and maintenance of the furnace has brought great convenience.
2. Enhance energy efficiency
- Optimize reflow process parameters: By accurately setting the reflow oven temperature profile, ensure that all solder joints in the reflow zone are in the process window at the same time.
- Adoption of automation equipment and intelligent production management system: Advanced automation solutions and intelligent production management system can monitor and regulate the production process in real time, improve the stability of soldering quality, reduce the scrap rate, and thus enhance energy efficiency.
- Use of reflow simulation systems and high-temperature photography: Reflow simulation systems can simulate temperature changes during product production and demonstrate the welding process, helping to optimize the welding process.
- Use of multi-zone temperature control technology and precise temperature control system: Multi-zone temperature control technology ensures high precision and consistency of welding, and reasonable preheating curve can effectively reduce welding defects.
- Use of efficient hot air circulation system: The hot air circulation system in the reflow furnace ensures stable temperature in the furnace chamber so that the reflow furnace can work continuously and stably. The hot air not only transfers heat to the product, but also can be recovered and reheated after the temperature is lowered, improving the efficiency of heat energy utilization.
3. Waste management and recycling
Implement the classification and recycling of process waste, and the safe treatment and reuse of electronic waste.
IV. Technological innovation and development trend
The application of reflow soldering emerging technology mainly includes the application of computer hardware, communication equipment and other fields, and with the progress of technology, reflow soldering technology is also constantly developing and innovation.
Reflow soldering technology continues to progress, adapted to the needs of miniaturization and high density of electronic products. For example, hot air reflow soldering transfers heat energy through hot air laminar flow movement, which has the characteristics of uniform heating and stable temperature, and is suitable for the welding of high-density components. In addition, the gas phase reflow soldering technology through the heating vapor to uniformly heat the components, suitable for applications requiring high temperature control. The development of these new technologies has led to the application of reflow soldering in a wider range of fields.
V. Summary
1. Environmental significance
The core of green reflow soldering is to reduce the impact on the environment. Specifically, green reflow soldering through the use of environmentally friendly materials and optimize the process to reduce the emission of harmful substances and waste generation.
2. Energy Saving
Green reflow soldering also makes a significant contribution to energy conservation. By optimizing the heating and cooling process, energy consumption is reduced.
3. Application Examples
In practical application, green reflow soldering has achieved remarkable results. For example, certain enterprises have realized a solder recycling rate of more than 90% by adopting green reflow soldering technology, which significantly reduces the cost of waste disposal. At the same time, through the use of environmentally friendly materials and optimization of processes to reduce the emission of harmful substances, in line with environmental requirements.
Company Profile
Zhejiang NeoDen Technology Co., Ltd. has been manufacturing and exporting various small pick and place machines since 2010. Taking advantage of our own rich experienced R&D, well trained production, NeoDen wins great reputation from the world wide customers.
with global presence in over 130 countries, the excellent performance, high accuracy and reliability of NeoDen PNP machines make them perfect for R&D, professional prototyping and small to medium batch production. We provide professional solution of one stop SMT equipment.
We believe that great people and partners make NeoDen a great company and that our commitment to Innovation, Diversity and Sustainability ensures that SMT automation is accessible to every hobbyist everywhere.
Post time: Mar-27-2025