Editing Wave soldering (section)

{{Short description|Electronics soldering process}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Flow soldering|Reflow soldering}}
[[File:Solder wave.ogv|thumb|250px|right|Inside a wave soldering machine, showing the wave soldering process]]
[[File:Wave soldering thermal profile.png|thumb|Temperature and time graph showing wave soldering solder pot and topside temperatures]]

'''Wave soldering''' is a bulk [[soldering]] process used in [[printed circuit board manufacturing]]. The circuit board is passed over a pan of molten solder in which a pump produces an upwelling of solder that looks like a [[standing wave]]. As the circuit board makes contact with this wave, the components become soldered to the board.  Wave soldering is used for both [[Through-hole technology|through-hole]] printed circuit assemblies, and [[Surface-mount technology|surface mount]]. In the latter case, the components are glued onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB) by [[SMT placement equipment|placement equipment]], before being run through the molten solder wave. Wave soldering is mainly used in soldering of through hole components.

As through-hole components have been largely replaced by [[surface mount]] components, wave soldering has been supplanted by [[reflow soldering]] methods in many large-scale electronics applications. However, there is still significant wave soldering where surface-mount technology (SMT) is not suitable (e.g., large power devices and high pin count connectors), or where simple through-hole technology prevails (certain [[major appliance]]s).