Fixed Temperature Process Control

For industries including Aerospace, Medical Devices, and the Military, Metcal SmartHeat technology removes temperature variability by taking the temperature control away from the operator and into the self-regulating tip. This guarantees soldering temperature within the engineering specification and removes the significant risk associated with poor solder joints.

Metcal SmartHeat™ Technology

The Metcal® cartridge is made of a heater of proprietary design, consisting of a non-heating copper core and an outer heating layer of magnetic alloy. The composition of the alloy predetermines the tip temperature.

An alternating current is passed over the heater, the magnetic alloy causes the current flow to become confined to the “skin.” This is the Skin Effect. The resulting high current density causes rapid heating.
As it heats up, the magnetic alloy reaches its fixed temperature (Curie point) and loses its magnetic properties. This eliminates the Skin Effect, causing the migration of current to the low-resistance non-heating copper core of the heater.
As the tip cools slightly, the temperature falls below its fixed temperature, and its magnetic properties are restored. The Skin Effect immediately returns, and heating begins again, repeating the cycle.
Thus, the tip self-regulates, maintaining a constant temperature (±1.1°C).

Advantages of SmartHeat™ Fixed Temperature

Improves process control
No temperature overshoot which can damage components and boards
Temperature repeatability
No calibration
Extremely fast time to temperature and temperature recovery

New CV-IOT – The Ultimate in Process Control & Traceability

CV-IOT Gateway Module + Desktop Application

Combine the power of Chip-in-Cartridge technology and the connectivity of the Connection Validation (CV) system with CV-IOT to:

Capture data on each solder joint at every station on your network
Easily understand productivity dips and spikes
Receive alerts to ESD events
Add barcode information to your data set
Analyze data through the intuitive dashboard in real-time or export as a CSV file
Find the root cause of faulty joints faster by analyzing data never before available

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