Video: Hot Air Pencil SMD Soldering With Paste

The Hot AirPencil Presents Many Advantages of the Traditional Soldering Iron: As mentioned above, first and foremost, the hot air pencil is completely non-invasive because provides precision, pin-pointed, yet non-contact and low-velocity hot air directly to the individual component leads. But that's hardly the beginning:

Hot Air Pencil vs the Soldering Iron: There are many additional advantages of the hot air pencil over a traditional contact soldering iron. Below are a just few:

a.) There is absolutely no opportunity to bend/deform delicate SMD leads or scratch/damage delicate pads which is a common occurrence with traditional soldering  irons;

 b.) The air pencil, unlike the soldering iron, allows no opportunity for introducing contamination into your assembly such as dirt, grime, residual flux, adhesives and more;

 c.) The air pencil works with either Lead-free (RoHS) or traditional tin/lead solder alloys because it never contacts the pad and/or solder unlike traditional soldering tips which must be carefully segregated between lead-free and tin/lead alloys at the bench;

 d.) With the air pencil, there is no accidentally bumping or moving your carefully placed SMD which is also a drawback with the soldering iron which can misalign the chip after it is placed because it contacts the chip;

 e.) The air pencil excels where the traditional soldering iron fails in preparing or "touching up" pads, for while a contact iron can leave unwanted tags or "ice-cycles" which compound co-planarity problems, the hot air pencil hot levels and leaves a smooth pad; and

 f.) A soldering iron can be very damaging to ceramic chip capacitors and glass diodes due to its immediate conductive application of high temperature directly to the leads setting up unequal thermal expansion conditions between the chip and its leads. Unfortunately, soldering irons have been the cause of significant quality issues, with cracking and fissuring caps an diodes. The hot air pencil, with its convective nature, virtually eliminates this problem altogether.

Touch-Free, Hot Air Soldering Presents Many Advantages Over Traditional Contact Soldering Irons

Ceramic Caps & Glass Diodes Must Always Be Soldered With AirPencils, Never With Soldering Irons, To Prevent Thermal Shock, & Chip Cracking.

So Many Features! Rewriting all the rules, the engineers at Zephyrtronics pulled out all the stops when designing the ZT-2-MIL AirPencil’s hand-piece/pencil. Consider the following 3 issues:

1) The system delivers up to 530ºC at the Air Tip exit and, yet is powered by only an extra-safe, extra-low 24 volts (Be sure to investigate the high voltages of our so-called "competition").

2) It's featherweight and pencil-thin hand piece is, to our knowledge, now the lightest and thinnest AirPencil ever, making soldering a joy rather than a drudge.

3) Our precision air velocity control dial has 3 full rotations for the finest of adjustments ---separating it from all other high-velocity so-called "hot air tools" which can and do blow tiny chips away during reflow and/or scatter solder balls up under IC's. Our unique 3-turn dial puts you in control while you work.

The AirPencil & Solder Paste! What a Great Combination: And because of the extra low adjustment to the air velocity, you can now, at long last, work successfully with solder paste for your high quality reflow creating solder joints replete with fillets at the toes, heels and sides of the SMD's. Wait until you experience the difference!  Did we say solder paste reflow at the bench? Want to see how to use the ZT-2-MIL AirPencil? Just check out our color pictorial process page, "SMD Soldering Made Easy at the Bench".

The Zephyrtronics ZT-2-MIL AirPencil belongs at every work bench where critical SMT rework is being performed. And for enhanced results, it is recommended that the system be used in concert with any of our now world-famous ZT-1 AirBaths for quality thermal profiles through pre-heating.

 The ZT-2-MIL Belongs at Every Bench Where SMT SolderingIs Performed. This is the Tool You Want to Have at Your Fingertips.

All Hot Air Pencils Are Not Created Equal:  Here is why the ZT-2-MIL is just so superior to other so-called "air pencils" and why it is unique in design and utility:

1.) Zero Level Static: The ZT-2-MIL AirPencil was evaluated by Motorola's ESD Lab and found not only to be ESD-Safe, but was the only hot air tool to qualify for its extra-tough standard of "Zero Static Level" for space applications. Just so superior.

2.) Ultra-Skinny Profile Provides Easy Visibility to See The Chip You Are Soldering! The ZT-2-MIL AirPencil has the sleekest, pencil-thin profile of any hot air pencil. Other manufacturers have crudely packaged their "hot air pencils" into essentially their large, bulky solder iron handles which obstruct vision to small components like chip capacitors and resistors and chip scale size packages. You simply can not "see around" these goofy designed tools. Just so superior.

3.) Ergonomic, Feather-Weight Hand-piece! The ZT-2-MIL AirPencil is truly an air "pencil". Its lightweight hand-piece puts all other air pencils to shame and makes soldering a joy rather than a drudge. Just so superior.

4.) Only 24 Volts in the Handle! Again, most all other hot air pencils require technicians to wield high voltages of 120 or up to 240 Volts in their hands. Yikes! But our ZT-2-MIL AirPencil easily reflows even high temp, lead-free solder alloys with ease with only 24 Volts! How? Our effective internal air heating chamber agitates air providing up to 510°C at the exit point of the AirTip at the maximum setting. Now, clearly we don't think one should be soldering at those temperatures, but we wanted to assure you that a properly engineered 24-volt tool can deliver all the punch that those high voltage tools do. Just so superior.

5.) Variable Air Flow With a Truly "Ultra-Light" Range! As mentioned above, our precision air velocity control dial has 3 full rotations for the finest of adjustments ---separating it from all other high-velocity so-called "hot air tools" which can and do blow tiny chips away during reflow and/or scatter solder balls up under IC's. Just so superior.

A Wide Selection of Air Focusing Tips Are Available: Unlike traditional soldering "tips" which oxidize, the ZT-2-MIL utilizes long life stainless steel Air Tips including the popular Oval Air Tip which, by the way, ships out standard with each system.  A selection of 5 styles of these very affordable Air Tips are available from Zephyrtronics. Plus, every ZT-2-MIL AirPencil System comes with a set of two non-magnetic, stainless SMD steel tweezers for cool chip replacement and removal.

Optional: 5 Distinct Stainless Steel Air Tip Styles are Available for All SMD's

 POPULAR OVAL

FAN

ROUND

ANGLED

FINE / JET

Air Opening
I.D. .125" x .040"

Air Opening
I.D. .300" x .040"

Air Opening
I.D. .095"

Air Opening
I.D. .095"

Air Opening
I.D. .040"

ZT-2-002

ZT-2-006

ZT-2-003

ZT-2-004

ZT-2-005