Recently we got to test Durafuse®LT - a low temperature solder - with a different sort of process from usual: Hot Bar Soldering.
Durafuse® LT was developed to bring increased reliability to applications requiring reduced temperature to protect temperature sensitive components and prevent defects. Another strategy is to only selectively apply heat to the locations requiring soldering. So long as those soldering locations are separate from the temperature sensitive materials and components, methods like Hot Bar, Laser, and Hand or Robotic Soldering can be supremely effective tools to create reliabile defect-free joints.
So what I learned recently is how Hot Bar soldering in particular uses a pulsed electric current moving through a heating element to form a "hot bar". That hot bar gets used to apply heat to the specific area where two pre-tinned surfaces are put in contact with each other. It's already a useful process for applications attaching flexible printed circuits, small wires, or cables to a circuit board directly, but it is even better when we can partner the technology with a low temperature solder like Durafuse® LT!
It's amazing to learn about all the innovation that has gone on in the electronics industry to bond components and materials together. At Indium Corporation we get to learn about, use, and build on the information and capabilities that have been developed.