As SMT progressed, it became clear that there were certain components that just could not make the surface mount transition. For instance, large connectors, powerful transistors, high current devices etc. But engineers and customers still wanted the space advantages that surface mount technology afforded them. Now, many products today are built with a mix of surface mount and through-hole components. We call these circuit boards “Mixed Technology”. These can often be the most challenging products to manufacture.

A few years ago WAi had the foresight to find a way to manufacture these boards in a more consistent and cost effective manner. We realized that the key to doing this would be to find a way to automate the soldering of these through-hole components. So a Selective Soldering Machine was purchased and it has been a great success for us. Today we can process boards many times faster than we could with conventional hand soldering. In fact one of the first products we ran on the selective soldering machine was a job that would normally take us over a full 40 hour week to complete. Utilizing the selective soldering machine it took a mere 8 hours. Not only was there significant time savings, but the consistency and quality of the product was far superior to what even the most skilled hand soldering technician could produce on their own.

When it comes to mixed technology, we are prepared.