I am going to apologize ahead of time if this is a really simple question. I started learning to solder during my internship but I had no EE knowledge prior.
When I was working with surface mount soldering my internship adviser mentioned this property or effect, the name of which I'm blanking on, that would cause the pieces when heated to move into place on the pads of the board. Does anyone know what the name of that property or effect is?
Electronic – the effect that makes components on a circuit board move into place
solderingsurface-mount
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Best Answer
It's just the surface tension of the solder in liquid state.
A physical system will settle in its lowest achievable energy configuration. Given the surface tension of the solder and the adhesion forces to the different surfaces it is in contact with, the lowest energy configuration would be all the component pins in the center of their respective pads. Of course, this assumes the presence of a solder mask and the resultant force overcoming any friction present.
It is the same principle that generates the meniscus of a liquid in a container.