HMD Engineering B.V. Ensures Strong Connections – For Their Products and Suppliers
To provide its products with the highest quality and durable solder joints, the engineering firm HMD Engineering located in Nieuw-Vennep, Netherlands, recently invested in the new Pillarhouse “Pilot” Selective Soldering System.
In spite of a rapidly evolving market and the need to provide more and more functionalities on a small surface, it is impossible to obtain all components in SMD package. As an engineering firm that produces tailor-made developments for their customers and normally does not have to produce large quantities, HMD Engineering has traditionally made the choice to do everything in-house; from development to production.
“When it comes to THT soldering, we get confronted with more and more double-sided PCBs on the one hand, and on the other hand our traditional wave soldering machine did not produce enough satisfactory results,” says Rob Huiberts, owner of HMD Engineering. “Especially for smaller companies it is important that we can differentiate ourselves through flexibility, customer service and top-level quality.”
The Pillarhouse Pilot machine is a table model selective soldering machine, which gives the same quality soldering results as its larger brothers Jade and Fusion. It uses a precise Drop Jet fluxer, combined with global and local preheating and a soldering pot that can be equipped with a wide range of nozzle styles to handle any kind of soldering. The PCB remains completely horizontal and the patented return spiral and settings of the pump ensure a repetitive and high quality soldered connection.
“The products we develop include applications such as line scan cameras, data loggers and sensors that are used in extreme conditions. The electrical connection of the components that can endure a mechanical force is therefore indispensable for a reliable product.” according to Rob Huiberts. “We are very satisfied with this investment, and we experienced that by replacing the manual soldering we can also free up more time to realize other projects.”
“The purchase of a Selective Soldering System is an investment that is difficult to calculate for many companies.” confirms Tom Van Tongelen, owner of Smd-Tec, the partner for Pillarhouse in the Benelux region”. The Pillarhouse Pilot offers a financially viable solution and from the experience of our Pillarhouse customers we can see they benefit from using this process. Apart from a repetitive result, the soldering is stronger because you can give each pin its own setting, and the PCB is much cleaner without flux residues. As a bonus the reduced consumption of solder and flux is not only good for the financial bottom line, but also for our environment.” he concludes.