Wave soldering of PCB with Through hole and test points. Masking test points

Question

I want to do wave soldering for the through hole components. All through hole components are top side of PCB. Bottom side of PCB has only test points. How do the assembly house mask the test points ? Can he do wave solder the through hole parts without masking it ? As per our assembly house input, adding masks on test points and removing the masks after soldering is same as manual soldering effort, in terms of cost.

Can any one explain the process. Just trying to understand the process and cost involved.

Answer 1

You can ask the assembly house to put Kapton tape over the test pads if you've designed the PCB to make that easier.

You can get the board supplier to add peelable solder mask, but it will cost money.

You can just use the pogo pins on the solder covered pads in most cases, maybe not for very low level measurements, and even for those there are particularly aggressive pins available that have a drilling action.

Answer 2

I worked on soldering wave I have experience in protecting pcb areas from the soldering wave. Used etc. temporary solder stop mask. Typically, the mask is used to protect gold-plated contacts or metallized openings and is a polymer that polymerizes in air or is baked in an oven and becomes a soft rubber that is not durable and easily removed mechanically after soldering. The application can be done manually for small batches or with a stencil for larger ones. Removing of the mask after soldering might be automated, depending on the equipment available. The cost of protecting a zone is usually commensurate with that of component mounting + hard technology costs for templates, etc.