Selective soldering system from Contax meets Jaltek's requirements

Selective soldering system from Contax meets Jaltek's requirements

Production automation system specialist, Contax Ltd, has supplied a new Pillarhouse Jade selective soldering system to Jaltek Systems Ltd, a premier integrated design and electronics manufacturing services provider. The Jade is being used to replace an existing soldering machine that did not fulfil its purpose.

Explained Bryan Newstead, Head of New Product Development at Jaltek Systems Ltd, “We had been using another system for around four months, but we were not satisfied with it. We therefore wanted to get the right equipment in place as quickly as possible.”

“We needed a system that could handle both leaded and lead-free, with fast changeover times. It had to be implemented quickly, and require minimal staff training” he said.

Jaltek reviewed the market fully, and evaluated five alternatives. After the initial contact with Contax, Jaltek's engineers looked at the Pillarhouse system and were impressed with its compact size, practicality and functionality.

The Jade is a standalone platform with a small footprint. However, it can handle PCBs or pallets of up to 457 × 508mm. Each solder joint is individually controlled and can be varied according to requirements, so providing Jaltek with excellent flexibility.

It also features a small 15kg solder pot – a fraction of the size of the standard 200kg containers. This not only provides savings in both time and material costs, but also ensures that it is quick and easy to change from leaded to lead-free solder.

“The Jade was obviously designed and built by engineers” said Bryan. “Whereas some other systems are quite complex, the Jade is very minimalistic. The software is simple, intuitive, and easy to use. The entire system is just totally practical” he said.

Following installation, the Jade was up and running within 24h. “The Jade is superb” enthused Bryan. “The day after Contax installed it,we were running product on it, and it has been functioning perfectly ever since.”