General Properties To Check When Buying Industrial Soldering Fluxes

by Sagar Chauhan Digital Marketing Analyst

Soldering is the process of joining two similar or dissimilar metals with the help of a soldering alloy like copper, aluminium, silver, lead, indium, and bismuth etc., combined with tin. While soldering two metals, soldering fluxes are used to clean the base material surface to ensure that no oxides are formed during the process. Depending on the application, different fluxes come with different activator packages which work at different temperatures. These soldering fluxes are also used in industrial purposes to clean the surface of the two base metals chemically to prevent oxidation. Not just the prevention of oxidation, industrial soldering fluxes also cleans off the surface metal so that the filler alloy can smoothly flow into the joints and join the two metals strongly. While buying these fluxes from industrial soldering fluxes supplier or manufacturer, one needs to know the general properties to ensure a right purchase.

·    Fluidity
Fluidity is the property of soldering fluxes to easily flow between the two metal surfaces to clean them perfectly. The soldering fluxes should have excellent to good fluidity to ensure that they can easily flow on the surface and remove all the oxides prevent there.

·    Activity
The industrial soldering fluxes should have a high activity to ensure that they are quick in preventing oxidation on the surface of the base material. Highly active fluxes are proven to scrape off any existing oxides from the surface in a short time.

·    Flux Removal
Another general property of industrial soldering fluxes is their flux removal. After soldering is completed and the two metals are joined, it is important to remove the flux. One needs to ensure that the flux is easy to remove using simple processes like washing away with hot water.

·    Wetting Property
While buying the soldering fluxes for industrial purposes, the wetting property of the fluxes should also be kept in mind. The better wetting property the flux has the easier it is for the flux to remove the oxides. The fluxes should have excellent to good wetting property to ensure that they can easily wet the two base surfaces and remove any oxides trapped while also preventing the formation of oxides during the soldering process.

·    Soldering Type
Another property of the fluxes to check while buying them is the soldering type with which they can be used. Check their uses, whether they can be used with indirect heating by flame, direct flame, induction, electrical soldering gun, furnace etc.

·    Flux Residue
The type of flux residue that is left behind after the soldering process is also supposed to be checked before buying industrial soldering fluxes. Fluxes that have the property of leaving behind low corrosive residue are better choice.

·    Metal Compatibility
Every flux has its own compatibility level with which it can be used. See the metal alloys with which the flux can be used for soldering. It can be Sn/Pb alloys, Sn/Zn alloys, Pb/Sn alloys, Sn/Ag alloys, Sn/Cu alloys, and Pb/Sn/Cu alloys etc.

These were some of the general properties of industrial soldering fluxes that must be checked before making a purchase. Keeping these properties in mind would help the buyers find the suitable flux to meet their soldering needs.