Tinning: Critical Care of Soldering Tips in a Lead Free Environment

Yes, we all know that you should be tinning your soldering iron tips between times of usage, but do you really understand the fundamentals of doing so, how it impacts heat transfer, time on a board pad and ultimately the quality of the solder joint and reliability of the component itself? Even more so, these issues have become front and center discussions in the lead free environments we are now operating within. Take a moment and spend some time with us as we review the how’s and why’s tinning exists and the proper procedures to protect your tooling and ultimately the product itself.

Topics we will be reviewing are:

• Fundamentals of why we even tin soldering tips.
• Types of lead free solders used to tin.
• Tip cleaners and their use.
• Sponges (brass, wet sponge, etc.) and other methods of cleaning.