Continuous soldering installation

Claim 1

A continuous soldering installation particularly for the soldering of printed circuit boards, said installation comprising: a soldering machine that includes support means for carrying frames adapted to carry printed circuit boards along a path of travel from a front input end of said support means to a rear output end of said support means, means associated with said support means near the front input end for fluxing printed circuit boards, means associated with said support means for preheating a fluxed printed circuit board and means associated with said support means for soldering fluxed and preheated printed circuit boards; a feeder mechanism for transporting frames that are adapted to carry the printed circuit boards; said mechanism disposed at the front input end of the support means, having at least the length of two frames and being equipped with at least one programmable sub mechanism operatively associated with the feeder mechanism for holding the frame at a holding station; a program controlled trigger mechanism associated with the feeder mechanism and operated by the sub mechanism to release the frame for movement by the feeder mechanism to the soldering machine; a discharge device disposed at the rear output end of the support means; a transfer device traversing the support means for moving frame therethrough; a program controlled variable speed reversible electric motor, which drives at least the transfer device, and which for selective operation of the installation can function in continuous throughput fashion or in a back-and-forth operation; switchboards associated with said installation with relatively operable switches and adjustable regulators for changing soldering parameters and selecting operational modes for said installation; said modes including a simple through processing mode and a back-and-forth processing mode; said soldering parameters including operation levels of said fluxing means and said preheating means, and speed of said soldering means; frames adapted to carry printed circuit boards, each of said frames equipped with a code bearing strip; said feeder mechanism at a front end thereof being equipped with a reading device which reads the code on said strip, said reading device transmitting said code to a program control station, said program control station matching said code with an appropriate routine for processing a printed circuit board attached to said read frame.