Solder which metals

Custom and restoration body shops utilize soldering materials to fill seas, level uneven bodywork, and blend custom features into vehicles.

Medical equipment is becoming more and more advanced and new technologies are being created daily. Having advanced medical equipment is essential to making sure your medical practice is up to speed. New technologies and longer lifespans are driving the growing medical device and medical electronics manufacturing markets around the world. The assembly of diagnostic and therapeutic catheters, micro-catheters and feed-through require precision solder products that are made to a tight tolerance and high-quality standards.

In sensors, temperature-sensitive devices may need low melting alloys to prevent thermal stress during assembly. Soldering to some of the most widely used metals in the medical market, including Nitinol and stainless steel can be challenging. Removal of the tenacious surface metal oxides must be achieved before soldering can take place. In connector manufacturing maximum signal integrity is required to allow for the optimum flow of data and images.

From diagnostic and imaging equipment to handheld monitoring devices, printed circuit boards are in almost all of the equipment used by doctors, hospitals and clinics. Lead is a dense and extremely versatile tool, making it the preferred material of high energy radiation operation. It is used in nuclear and radiology operations, including x-ray gamma ray and nuclear applications.

Some of the solder products frequently used in medical devices are solder paste, preforms, solder wire, solder spheres, and flux. Solder paste is a spherical, low-oxides powder available in various mesh sizes. Performs is a large die library of washers, squares, discs, frames, and special shapes. When looking what kind of solder you are going to use you have to look at what you are soldering and what the industry standards are within the particular industry you are working in.

You will use the 0. If you have any questions about your specific solder requirements, please contact us or email us at sales mayeralloys. We provide FREE technical assistance and will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Buy what you want when you want it and we will ship your material the same day it is ordered in most cases. Customer service and technical assistance are always available to ensure you are getting the right materials. Mayer Alloys is a solder distributor that stocks and supplies a complete line of solder.

We will ship your items the same day it is ordered in most cases. For technical support, please contact us at or email us at sales mayeralloy. Call for Current Pricing and Information. Soldering Guide for Industry.

Lead Solder Most prevalent solder that is used is tin-lead solder that was mixed to such a degree that it is known as a eutectic mixture. Lead-Free Solder With the drive to reduce the amount of lead being used for environmental and health reasons, lead-free solder is now being widely used. Rosin and Acid Core Solder Rosin and acid solders are manufactured with the solder wire as a tube and the center of the tube contains the flux.

Forms of Solder Solder comes in all different types of forms and shapes. Industries That Use Solder Every industry has standards of what metal alloys are commonly used. Plumbing No plumbing system, no matter how well designed, can be expected to operate safely or hygienically if the products or materials used are unsatisfactory. Radiators Radiator solder can be similar to plumbing in that no matter how well designed your radiator, it will not hold up if you don't use the right materials.

Stained Glass When working with stained glass you need to make sure you are using high-quality solder because stained glass is a work of art. Bait and Tackle In the bait and tackle industry solder is used for many things including hooks, wire, bead, bladers, ball bearing, rings, loops, spacers, jigs, splits, sinkers and cannon balls.

Wire Cloth Wire cloth materials and mesh for screens are used in many of your mechanical and industrial needs. Automotive Car manufacturers need durable materials in order to produce high-quality vehicles people will want to buy.

Medical Medical equipment is becoming more and more advanced and new technologies are being created daily. Solder is commonly used in some of these products: The assembly of diagnostic and therapeutic catheters, micro-catheters and feed-through require precision solder products that are made to a tight tolerance and high-quality standards.

For example I recently tried silver paperclips, with the same results! This common mesh is galvanised steel i. Apparently paperclips are also made of galvanised steel as a rule, so there may be a connection here. Other metals such as aluminium or regular steel can be soldered, but require special solder and flux and may need stronger equipment. But if you really want to know what else is possible, just give it a go.. The metal parts to be joined are heated with the tip of the iron so that they will be hot enough to melt the soft metal solder applied to them.

It is important for a lasting joint that the metal itself melts the solder in this way rather than melting solder onto the iron tip and transferring to the joint because this will achieve only a very weak attachment. Once this area is hot enough the end of the solder wire just needs to be touched into the joint and a little of it should instantly melt. The iron should be kept in place just long enough to allow the now liquid solder to infiltrate the joint properly..

I wanted the joints and the position of the soldering tip to show as clearly as possible. See the end section for recommendations on specific makes, suppliers and price-guidance for the following list:. A soldering iron of at least 30W strength.. This means one can press down for maximum contact with the metal surfaces.

You will also find that the majority of soldering irons on offer are too weak to tackle metal of any thickness beyond a small fraction of a millimetre.. This is important since thicker pieces of metal will conduct the heat away very quickly. All this makes the search for the right soldering iron and the price options just a little more involved.. Look at the three irons compared below:. At the top is my old Draper model K40P.. Notice the screw head at the end of the shaft which means that the soldering bit can be easily extended or removed just by loosening it.

This iron works reasonably well in terms of heat output and the integrated stand makes it comfortable to use.. Unfortunately a rather careless design.. This has worked reasonably well so far during our soldering workshops. The type below could also be a good option..

Perhaps it goes without saying though.. To sum up.. If possible check that the bit provided is long enough to be extended if need be. A stand sometimes supplied with the iron is essential, both to hold the hot point off the work surface when not in use and to secure the tool in one position on the table.

There seems to have been a fairly universal agreement that soldering irons should all have just a little over 1. In short.. Or a more elegant solution is to buy a separate stand unit.

These stands are weighted, and usually have a sponge attached which must be dampened if used for wiping the iron while working.

Flux A liquid or paste which is applied to the joint just prior to soldering and which assists the solder to fuse properly with the metal by preventing the metal surface from oxidising.

The flux evaporates as soon as the metal gets hot. A damp sponge , steel wool or metal files to clean the soldering bit while working.

This needs to be done once the iron is hot, but it is not enough just to do it once at the beginning of a session. The hot bit of the iron will blacken again within a minute, so to prevent build-up of this oxidation the cleaning needs to be repeated at least each time the iron is picked up again. This has nothing to do with cleanliness!

Kapa-line foamboard or heavy card on which to mount the template drawing. Caution note : Kapa-line polyurethane foamboard is suggested because it is a perfect insulator will not conduct heat away from the metal and polyurethane foam resists heat to an extent.

Standard polystyrene foamboard is not suitable.. If soldering is done properly the paper covering on the Kapa-line foamboard will scorch but there is little danger of fire or burning of the foam. While lead is still used in electronics, lead is not used as much when soldering products such as pipes because leakage in the pipes can cause lead to seep into drinking water. Copper and brass solder very easily, binding to other kinds of metals. When some metals are bound together, they need to have special fluxes that help facilitate the binding and these fluxes can be very hazardous.

Tin is a solder that tends to be used in place of lead soldering to avoid lead poisoning, though copper and silver are also commonly used. Silver is often used as a solder for jewelry. Jewelry melts at a high melting point, so a torch is usually used to solder the jewelry. Flux is a type of soldering metal that is used as a catalyst for transferring heat to an iron so that the solder will chemically bond with the metals that are being soldered.

Flux comes in different forms depending on what the needs are of the welder, such as gel, paste and liquid.