TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present a novel approach on the process zone characterization for direct feedback regarding the state of vapour, in order to assure a better monitoring, control and understanding of the process.Design/methodology/approach– Different pressure sensors were applied in an experimental vapour phase soldering (VPS) station, where the hardware setup was dedicated to the current experiments. Static and dynamic pressure values were analyzed and correlated with additional thermal measurements.Findings– The results reveal the dynamics of the vapour blanket generation. The correlated measurements show different stages of the process initialization, highlighting better accuracy than sole temperature measurements of saturated vapour identification. It is possible to trace the height of the available saturated vapour blanket with static pressure measurements.Practical implications– The VPS process may benefit from the more precise saturation detection, giving better control on the heat transfer, enabling more efficient production with the reduction of idle time, and resulting in better soldering quality.Social implications– Reducing the idle time of the VPS stations may result in better efficiency and smaller power consumption, reducing the environmental impact of the method.Originality/value– The presented methods provide a completely novel approach from the aspect of process zone state variables and parameters characterization, focusing on pressure measurements. VL - 25 IS - 2 SN - 0954-0911 DO - 10.1108/09540911311309059 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/09540911311309059 AU - Géczy Attila AU - Illés Balázs AU - Péter Zsolt AU - Illyefalvi‐Vitéz Zsolt PY - 2013 Y1 - 2013/01/01 TI - Characterization of vapour phase soldering process zone with pressure measurements T2 - Soldering & Surface Mount Technology PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 99 EP - 106 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -