This invention relates to devices for cleaning the tip of a soldering iron or solder extractor.
A cleaning unit of the above type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,609,791 granted to William J. Siegel et al., which patent is assigned to the assignee of this subject application and which is incorporated herein by reference. Soldering irons and solder extractors require care and maintenance and particularly those commonly employed in the field of rework and repair of electrical circuitry. That is, the tip of a soldering iron or solder extractor becomes fouled with a surface film of oxides and sometimes flux. In addition, particles of solder and flux adhere to the tip. Such fouling of the soldering iron hinders subsequent formation of proper solder connections. Accordingly, the tip should be cleaned periodically, especially during the course of forming numerous solder connections.
In the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,609,791, a separate wire bristle brush is employed to remove adhering particles and flux by wiping the tip against the brush. Although the wire brushing removes discrete particles from the tip, such brushing usually fails to remove the film of oxide therefrom. A separately mounted sponge is thus used to remove this film. That is subsequent to the wire brushing, the solder iron is heated, if not already hot, and then the tip is wiped gently across the top of the sponge. Contact between the hot soldering tip and the wet sponge shock cools the surface of the tip cracking away therefrom any oxide film present thereon.
Although the foregoing method and device is suitable for cleaning soldering iron or extractor tips in some applications, it has two shortcomings, the first of these being the metallic, wire brush for removing particulate matter from the tip. That is, the soldering iron tips are usually made from a copper containing alloy, the tip typically being at least plated with a material such as iron to prevent oxidation of the copper core. In a solder extractor nickel layer is formed on the copper tip. However, the wire brush of the above device tends to remove portions of the plating and accordingly, there is a strong tendency for the copper constituting the tip to be exposed to solder and flux and thus be oxidized whereby the useful life of the tip is substantially shortened since such oxidation can eventually result in disintegration of significant portions of the tip. Moreoever, the disintegrated portions tend to become jagged whereby the jagged portions may damage the electrical circuitry.
Another shortcoming of the above-discussed prior art device is that the wire brush station and the sponge station are provided at separate places on the cleaning unit. Accordingly, the amount of room required for the cleaning unit becomes somewhat substantial. This tends to be a drawback in some rework and repair applications where space must be optimally utilized.
Accordingly, a primary object of this invention to provide an improved cleaning unit for tips of soldering irons and solder extractors wherein both particulate matter and surface oxides may be removed from the tip with little, if any, danger of removing the protective plating on the tip.
It is a further primary object of this invention to provide a cleaning unit of the above type where the removal of the particulate matter and the surface oxides may occur at the same place and at the same time thus optimizing space utilization while at the same time optimizes the efficiency of the tip cleaning process.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention taken together with the drawing.