Science of Soldering©: The Smarter Choice For Operators & Technicians

What is a chef doing on a web site about soldering? He's making a technical subject friendly and accessible to everyone from operators with limited formal schooling to engineers with advanced degrees.

Most soldering operators have limited education. So solder training programs have always avoided teaching the chemistry, metallurgy and physics of soldering; they think operators won't be able to understand the scientific concepts. But operators are smart.

They can understand the critical process science. It's just a matter of explaining the process in ways that are familiar to them. So we created a soldering "recipe" that produces perfect soldering every time. A recipe is a familiar concept that does not frighten them. And that's why we feature the chef here and in our course materials.

Soldering is a lot like baking a cake in the sense that there are required ingredients, a required sequence for combining the ingredients, and required temperature for required time. There are just 7 steps in the soldering recipe. If those steps are followed in the right sequence, the result will always be perfect soldering.

We created the soldering recipe almost 40 years ago and it continues to prove its value. The recipe is at the heart of Science of Soldering©.

But there's much more to Science of Soldering© such as a unique hands-on out-of-control process problem. Plastic materials melt, solder refuses to flow and defect piles on top of defect. Helped by experiments and demonstrations, the students troubleshoot their process and eliminate the defects using the recipe. As they solve the problem, they learn almost everything there is to know about soldering, The problem is hands-on, has universal application and does not require memorization.

The Same Core Lessons Taught to Engineers

The lessons of the operator course are the same fundamentals we teach engineers (see the curriculum). The language is simpler and the lessons do not go into the science as deeply, but the operators are indeed taught like engineers. When they return to work, they are able to communicate effectively with process engineers when materials problems show up. More effective communication means faster identification of process problems and solutions that eliminate the problems.

The only other difference between the operator and engineering classes is the amount of manual skills development. Operators spend more time applying the recipe to various types of wiring, through–hole and surface mount exercises while engineers delve deeper into the technical aspects, generally on the shop floor.

The Science of Soldering© operator and technician curriculum can be seen here.