Originally published at: https://www.protoexpress.com/blog/making-sense-wave-soldering/
Depending on component technology, many options exist for automated mass soldering today. But wave soldering was the first – and, for several decades, only – practical method for quickly soldering large numbers of components to printed circuit boards (“PCBs,” also known as printed wiring boards or “PWBs” because their tracks or traces replaced actual wires previously needed to connect components).