Since partnering with Heller Industries last year, Altus Group, a leading supplier of capital equipment for the electronics industry, has seen growing interest in the company’s reflow oven technology including its latest innovation, the MK7.
Altus has introduced Heller Industries equipment to a wide variety of customers as it supports all production requirements from entry-level NPI volumes, to the fastest throughput needed in automotive environments.
As an innovator in convection reflow and in-line continuous curing applications, Heller Industries MK7 Reflow Oven is one of the world’s best SMT convection reflow oven for high-throughput applications.
Joe Booth, Altus said: “Heller Industries are leaders in their field, having pioneered convection reflow soldering since the 1980s. Because they have many years of in-depth knowledge and understanding of reflow oven technology, we were thrilled to add them to the Altus portfolio. The addition of the MK7 Reflow Oven has enabled us to introduce their technology to even more of our customers because of its game-changing benefits and massive energy-based ROI.
“Mk7 is designed with lower Delta T for superior thermal uniformity. It also has reduced nitrogen consumption of up to 40% and a new low-height package that makes it easy to see across the production floor. There is also a flux collection system that included trapping flux in collection jars that are easily removed and replaced while the oven is still running, so there is no downtime for changes.
“Another important feature is the energy management software. Energy saving is a hot topic at the moment and one which we are often asked about when it comes to new equipment. The MK7 software allows users to optimise energy consumption during the various production times, whether during heavy use or even when idle. With optimal airflow, uniformity and double insulation on all its skins there is at least a 20% energy saving when compared to the MK5 which was already comparable to others in the field.
It is not just software that makes this unit so energy efficient. Heller has modified the design of the heating zones to remove overall mass and reduce the distance from the fans to the product. This means that the oven requires less energy to heat up and less ongoing energy consumption to remain hot. This means that the oven warmup is faster (25%) and the oven is more reactive when reflowing higher thermal mass products, which helps keep the internal zone temperatures as uniform as possible to their set temperatures and in doing so, increases profile accuracy.
