Seika Machinery’s Solder Paste Recycling Unit Honored for Being Environmentally Friendly by the Global Technology Awards

Solder paste used with screen printers has a limited shelf life. When solder paste is exposed to the environment, solvents evaporate and cause it to dry. This leads to misprints, which requires disposal since it is no longer useable. However, instead of disposing of it, solder paste now can be recycled in-house.

Seika’s new SPR Unit enables the separation of flux and solder, using a special solder pot mechanism that inverts during each cycle. In approximately 34-45 minutes, the unit turns wasted solder paste into solder bar. The maximum volume per cycle is approximately 5.5 lb (2.5 kg).

The easy-to-use system enables approximately 90 percent of waste solder paste to be recovered as solder bar. The system provides a major decrease in disposal costs for factory waste, a reduction in CO2 emissions, and reduced costs for solder bar as a result of recycling waste.

Premiering in 2005, the Global Technology Awards program is an annual celebration of product excellence in electronics surface mount assembly. Premier products based on the finest examples of creative advancement in technology are chosen by a distinguished panel of industry experts.