Soldering

Soldering joins metal parts by melting a filler metal into the joint while keeping the base materials solid. The filler wets the surfaces and forms a bond as it cools.

Solder: A fusible metal alloy used to join metal parts by melting into a joint without melting the base materials. Its composition and melting range determine how the joint forms.
Brazing: A metal-joining process that melts filler above 450 °C while keeping the base materials solid. It uses the same general filler-based approach but operates above soldering's conventional temperature boundary.
Wave soldering: A mass-production process that passes a printed circuit board over a flowing wave of molten solder. It solders many through-hole component leads to a board in one pass.
Oxidation: A chemical reaction in which a substance loses electrons, often forming oxides when metals react with oxygen. Oxide films on workpieces interfere with solder wetting and bonding.
Metallurgy: The science and technology of extracting metals and shaping them into useful materials and objects. Soldering grew from broader practices of working and joining metals.
Wetting: The ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface, shaped by interfacial forces. Solder must spread across the base metal rather than bead up.
Welding: A process that joins materials by coalescing their base material, with or without added filler. Unlike soldering, welding typically melts or otherwise fuses the parts themselves.
Reflow soldering: A process that heats solder paste to form surface-mount joints on a printed circuit board. It is the standard method for attaching many surface-mount components.
Thermal conductivity: A material property describing how readily heat flows through a substance. It helps determine how quickly a joint reaches soldering temperature.
Bronze Age: A period in which bronze became a major material for tools, weapons, and objects across many societies. Early soldering is documented among ancient metalworking practices associated with this era.

Linked from 19 pages