Soldering systems have been in use for many years to perform such tasks as connecting electronic components to electrical circuits. The typical soldering system includes two components: a soldering iron and a soldering station. The soldering iron is typically comprised of a connector and a cartridge assembly or a handpiece with a heater and a soldering tip. The soldering station includes a power supply for supplying current to the soldering iron and control components. The cartridge assembly has a soldering tip, which is used to solder, located at one end of the cartridge and a connector at the opposite end, which can be inserted into a handle, attached to a power cable extending from the power supply. The power cable may have many wires capable of carrying current and information between the power supply and the cartridge assembly.
Different cartridge assemblies may have different configurations for the tip. Because of the varying configurations, the tip temperature may need to be optimized for effective soldering. The thermal properties of the various tip configurations as well as the shape and the size of the tip may impact the optimal temperature to solder using that particular tip. Traditional soldering stations, which had only one power output level, did not optimize the functionality of the different cartridge tips available in the market. Further, cartridges with varying tip designs had to be manufactured around the parameters of a particular power supply. The second generation of soldering stations allowed the user to adjust the power output of the power supply using dials and knobs to better define the power required. These adjustable soldering stations could accommodate a far broader range of soldering tip configurations as compared to the traditional soldering stations.
Each soldering process has an optimum temperature that needs to be maintained within set, often specified limits for proper soldering. The control dials on the second-generation power supplies can be adjusted to provide the appropriate amount of power to obtain this optimal temperature. Before heating elements had sensors built into them, the user would have to measure the tip temperature using special thermometers, then adjust the control dials, then measure the temperature, then adjust the control dials, and so on. Using such an iterative procedure, the user would fine-tune the actual temperature until it equaled the optimal temperature. Later technology incorporated sensors within the tip itself to measure the temperature, thereby eliminating the need for the time-wasting iterative process. Accordingly, soldering stations were developed that could utilize information from sensors located in the cartridge to automatically fine-tune the power output to reach the optimal temperature.
The development of cartridge sensors changed the role of the power supply and the user. The sensors within the cartridge relayed information back to the power supply, and the power supply displayed the temperature on a display. However, in current systems the temperature range can be accidentally changed by a user inadvertently pushing a button or moving a dial. Also, the temperature of the tip is displayed in segmented light emitting diodes (LEDs) that give an Arabic numeral representation of solder tip temperature. The displays are more expensive than single LED diodes. Also segmented LEDs display the tip temperature only and not the system status.
There is thus a need in the soldering industry to provide an easier to operate soldering station that includes a visual representation of system status.