Wave soldering is a method for soldering components onto printed circuit boards. The preheated circuit board is driven over a pump generated wave of liquid solder, which wets the component`s contacts with tin. For this, the solder is melted in a melting pot and pressed with a tin pump through a wide slot die which forms a wave. Depending on the application, turbulent and / or laminar waves are used. A special type of wave soldering uses several small holed nozzles instead of the wide slot die.
The wave soldering is preferably used for wired components (THT - Throuh Hole Technology) and rarely for pre-glued SMD components. The advantage of the wave soldering is the low thermal pressure on the circuit board and components.