With surface mount parts being so thoroughly entrenched, one might think that thru-hole parts and thru-hole soldering are no longer a part of the electronics manufacturing scene. While it is true that the vast majority of parts today are surface mount, there are still plenty enough thru-hole parts being used. Enough, in fact, that Screaming Circuits offers three different methods of soldering: hand solder, selective solder, and wave solder.
We still hand solder thru-hole components when there are only a few boards. We will often use our selective solder machine when there are a mix of thru-hole and surface mount parts but not enough boards to justify creation of a wave solder fixture.
Wave soldering gets the “go” when we have a lot of boards, especially when there will be multiple runs of the board, such that it’s more efficient to create a wave palette.
Though wave soldering has been around for decades, it still serves the industry well - and it’s fascinating to watch. If you’ve got thru-hole or surface mount components that need to be assembled, jump to oand see what it will take to have us build them for you.
