Review: eC-reflow-mate - quality reflow soldering made easy

Cooling

Once the solder paste has been transformed into molten joints, the oven must start cooling. Fast cooling results in stronger joints, slow cooling reduces board stress. What’s best for you depends on your board. Although the eC-relfow-mate does not have active cooling, it does have a temperature trigger for opening the drawer. When the temperature drops below the trigger value, the oven opens its drawer and activates a ventilator (to be attached to an external fume extraction unit). Using this option the cooling slope can be cut in two parts: one for slow cooling and the other for fast cooling.

While we’re on the subject of cooling, the eC-reflow-mate has an insulated casing to minimise energy loss and keep its outside cool for safe operation.

Double sided boards

A really practical reflow oven is also capable of soldering boards with components on both sides in one go. The eC-relow-mate features bottom heaters to support this. Again, using the eC-reflow-pilot, it is possible to precisely define the way the bottom heater behaves.

 

Conclusion

The Eurocircuits eC-reflow-mate V4 benchtop reflow soldering oven is a powerful and practical oven suitable for prototyping services and small production runs. It is easy to operate thanks to its 3.5” color touch screen and the Windows utility eC-reflow-pilot that gives the user full control over thermal profiles in a few clicks. The build quality will make the oven last for many years.

Let’s finish this review with some practical details. The eC-reflow-mate measures 520 (d) x 620 (w) x 245 (h) mm and weighs about 25 kg. The oven runs on 230 VAC / 50 Hz, and consumes not more than 3000 W. The maximum temperature possible is 288 degrees Celsius, suitable for leaded and lead-free solder. Reflow oven consumables are available here.