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NASA Marshall Space Flight Center film explains how rocket guidance and telemetry electronics are soldered to assure reliability. From the film series “Above and Beyond”.
Originally a public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
Wikipedia license:
Soldering, is a process in which two or more items (usually metal) are joined together by melting and putting a filler metal (solder) into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Soldering differs from welding in that soldering does not involve melting the work pieces. In brazing, the filler metal melts at a higher temperature, but the work piece metal does not melt. In the past, nearly all solders contained lead, but environmental and health concerns have increasingly dictated use of lead-free alloys for electronics and plumbing purposes…
Soldering is used in plumbing, electronics, and metalwork from flashing to jewelry.
Soldering provides reasonably permanent but reversible connections between copper pipes in plumbing systems as well as joints in sheet metal objects such as food cans, roof flashing, rain gutters and automobile radiators.
Jewelry components, machine tools and some refrigeration and plumbing components are often assembled and repaired by the higher temperature silver soldering process. Small mechanical parts are often soldered or brazed as well. Soldering is also used to join lead came and copper foil in stained glass work.
Electronic soldering connects electrical wiring and electronic components to printed circuit boards (PCBs)…
Soldering filler materials are available in many different alloys for differing applications. In electronics assembly, the eutectic alloy of 63% tin and 37% lead (or 60/40, which is almost identical in melting point) has been the alloy of choice…
For environmental reasons (and the introduction of regulations such as the European RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive)), lead-free solders are becoming more widely used. They are also suggested anywhere young children may come into contact with (since young children are likely to place things into their mouths), or for outdoor use where rain and other precipitation may wash the lead into the groundwater. Unfortunately, most lead-free solders are not eutectic formulations, melting at around 250 °C (482 °F), making it more difficult to create reliable joints with them…
Currently, mass-production printed circuit boards (PCBs) are mostly wave soldered or reflow soldered, though hand soldering of production electronics is also still widely used…
For hand soldering, the heat source tool should be selected to provide adequate heat for the size of joint to be completed. A 100 watt soldering iron may provide too much heat for printed circuit boards, while a 25 watt iron will not provide enough heat for large electrical connectors, joining copper roof flashing, or large stained-glass lead came. Using a tool with too high a temperature can damage sensitive components, but protracted heating by a tool that is too cool or under powered can also cause heat damage, perhaps even detaching PCB traces from the substrate.
Hand-soldering techniques require a great deal of skill for the fine-pitch soldering of surface mount chip packages. In particular ball grid array (BGA) devices are notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to rework by hand.
For attachment of electronic components to a PCB, proper selection and use of flux helps prevent oxidation during soldering; it is essential for good wetting and heat transfer. The soldering iron tip must be clean and pre-tinned with solder to ensure rapid heat transfer…
