Redesigning the soldering iron!

[solderotter]

Hi, we’re a team of engineering undergrads hoping to redesign the soldering iron. Specifically, we’re looking at making it safer and more usable by younger teens and children.

We’re looking for any feedback or advice you might have, especially if you have kids, so if you can spare a few minutes to fill out our survey, that’d be awesome. Or if you have any questions, feel free to shoot us an email at: solder.otter@gmail.com. Thank you for your time and input!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14cA...p4OFw/viewform

also, does anyone know why there is so much metal exposed towards the tip?

[Stevenson]

Hi, we’re a team of engineering undergrads hoping to redesign the soldering iron. Specifically, we’re looking at making it safer and more usable by younger teens and children.

We’re looking for any feedback or advice you might have, especially if you have kids, so if you can spare a few minutes to fill out our survey, that’d be awesome. Or if you have any questions, feel free to shoot us an email at: solder.otter@gmail.com. Thank you for your time and input!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14cA...p4OFw/viewform

also, does anyone know why there is so much metal exposed towards the tip?

Is this a joke? Typical soldering temps are in the 600 F range which can in no way be safe for children to handle no matter what you do. What's next? Maybe we can figure out a way to make table saws and routers safe for children.

[The Dude]

If anyone, regardless of age, lacks the intelligence to keep body parts away from the tip of a hot soldering iron, they shouldn't be using one anyway. I sure as hell don't want someone that stupid or young (whichever the case) working on my gear.

Some things are just meant to be learned later in life. We don't teach infants to clean skyscraper windows either.

[Enzo]

Look at where one is used, the larger the thing is, the fewer places it can be applied. You COULD put heat guards around all but the very tip, but then your iron would be an inch and a half across and wouldn;t fit anywhere. Kinda like the cartoon mom who puts so many coats and sweaters on her kid that the arms stick out the sides and the kid can;t bend over. "Now go on out and play, Junior."

It is hot. It HAS to be, it needs to melt lead and tin metals. 600 degrees is really a cool tip. I always use a 700 degree tip, and my desolder station is set at 750 degrees. You can cover the tip, then you can't use the tool. You expose the tip, now ther is a 700 degree thing sitting there.


it is hot, young people or inexperienced people will eventually burn themselves, its a fact of life. They could become chefs, but there too they will eventually burn themselves on the stove or touch a hot glass pie plate and lose their fingerprint. They could become mechanics and eventually a hot exhaust manifold will burn them.

Boy scouts build campfires, and sooner or later they will be burnt by an errant ember.


Like the table saw in shop class, there is only so much you can do to make it "safe."

[David King]

Give kids some credit, they have a central nervous system too. I started soldering when i was 8. I probably burn myself more often now than I did then.

[Enzo]

I started in 1954 at a similar age, and I don't recall burning myself much. I had a big old 40 watt iron, but my main tool was a weller 100/140 watt gun. Once in a while I'd manage to touch the side of the iron and learn a quick lesson. I tended to work in my basement shop a lot in my underwear at night. I might be stripping parts from some surplus gear and now and then a wire would pop free and send little beads of molten solder right onto my exposed thigh. Sssst. Yow!


But a solder iron isn't much different from a "wood burning tool". Those were popular then.


I had a chemistry set with an alcohol lamp - an open flame. I doubt we see those today.

[Mick Bailey]

I had a similar design brief for a project. It wasn't aimed at children, but adults with learning difficulties in sheltered employment. I guess a lot of the requirements will be similar. At the time materials, manufacturing costs and limited market were barriers. Some of the ideas were already emerging at the time (1976) or have subsequently appeared in products anyhow.

The first thing to look at is the physical design of the iron and how it's held, used and then placed when not in use. You need to get rid of the cord, as this has a number of problems;

It's weight and flexibility characteristics means that it pulls against the iron and can dislodge it from its stand or pull it off the bench.
It can get snagged.
It can get damaged from the hot iron (not such a problem with silicone)

So I'd be looking at a rechargeable iron that tops up between use at its base station.

Also;
It needs to have a profile that won't roll off a bench
The handle shape needs to intrinsically suggest the way it needs to be picked up
It needs to be grippy/rubberised/textured
It needs to be distinctively coloured
It needs to automatically switch off when not being used - an inertial sensor could now do this, or an 'operate' button

My thoughts on tip temperature and exposed hot metal is that there's been no real thought given to insulating the barrel. Only the joint-contacting tip needs to get hot. Most irons keep at a constant temperature all-day long, but if the tip only heated up when in use and then cooled down quickly, the duty-cycle could be such that an air-gapped ceramic insulating sleeve could offer enough of a thermal barrier.

I've not researched Peltier devices, but wonder if one could be used to cool (or even heat) the tip. Maybe the temperatures involved exceed the possibilities at present.

Now maybe there's an iron already on the market that does all this.

[salvarsan]

The exposed barrel is a trade-off between need for adequate thermal mass, response time, and heater lifespan. This arises from the slow response time of resistance alloy heaters.

Metcal achieves better temperature regulation by exploiting magnetic alloy, eddy currents, and Curie points to heat their solder tips.

If it were possible to idle a soldering iron or have an instant-ON capability, I think we'd already see it.

[eschertron]

I have one of those battery-operated soldering pens. It's use is limited by the short life of the batteries and the relatively low amount of heat energy available to the tip, but it is a good learning tool and on the right job (components with a very small thermal capacity) it's useful and useable. I don't pull it out on guitar amps; but for a PCB application (think stompbox) it's just fine.

+1 to Pavlov's learning technique. It's nearly impossible to develop good habits without being aware of the contingencies.

[Mick Bailey]

The exposed barrel is a trade-off between need for adequate thermal mass, response time, and heater lifespan. This arises from the slow response time of resistance alloy heaters.

Metcal achieves better temperature regulation by exploiting magnetic alloy, eddy currents, and Curie points to heat their solder tips.

If it were possible to idle a soldering iron or have an instant-ON capability, I think we'd already see it.

Just spotted the Coldheat iron - Weller have also licensed the idea. Gets a lot closer than I thought.

[Mark Hammer]

1) I would imagine that any, if not all, of us here would have some tale of how we reached out to grab or soldering iron, and accidentally grabbed a part that was not the handle, and changed our fingerprints forever. IT happens to any user who is momentarily distracted, or simply reaching out to the side and relying on imperfect peripheral vision.

2) Soldering irons are but one sort of manual device where it is useful to find an alternate design to render them more generally safe to use. In the face of sources of risk to surgical staff from blood-borne infections, a local manufacturer redisgned the scalpel to have a retractable blade, such that it can be safely passed from doctor to nurse or nurse to doctor, quickly, without risk of puncture or cuts. Why NOT ponder whether an alternate soldering iron design is feasible?

3) There are a few challenges to any alternate redesign:
a) to get in where it needs to go, the heated tip needs to be longish and slender;
b) the soldering tip needs to achieve very high temperature (limiting construction materials);
c) any exposed part would need to lose heat quickly.

Borrowing from both soldering guns and retractable scalpels, I wonder if it is possible to have a soldering tip that is generally covered until you need it, can be extended (to achieve the long slender form) when needed, and only heats up on demand (like a soldering gun). That would be the sort of thing you could reach out blindly for, and have significantly reduced risk of burning yourself.

Just thinking out loud here.

[John_H]

Chuck Norris solders with an ice pick.

I started soldering when I was about ten years old. I think my folks were more worried about me hurting myself on my minibike. I feel sorry for kids nowadays with their overprotective parents.

It's obvious these undergrad's don't do much soldering.

[eschertron]

It's obvious these undergrad's don't do much soldering.

Learning is both more measurable and more achievable when the student doesn't already have the answers

[big_teee]

Probably the most important thing with soldering iron safety is a good iron holder, or soldering iron cage.
I have been in guitar shops, where guys dangle or lay hot soldering irons everywhere.
Not only dangerous, it is a fire hazard.
My soldering station heats real fast, so I try to keep it off when not in use.
T

[Kindly Killer]

I like the name - Solder Otter LOL - that's great!

I took the survey. Freeing up my left hand from feeding solder manually sounds like a winning idea. OTOH adding more fine motor skills to the requirements of a single hand sounds harder for young children. Just guessing in the dark, I would imagine that manipulating a control to feed solder would make the iron harder for children to handle, not easier.

Here's an idea to consider. Bring onboard a research psychologist who specializes in learning theory. Do a legit study on children's difficulties learning assembly of electronic circuits. Make sure what you're working on really is a problem that can be solved with technology. I know from teaching music that there is a whole universe of teaching materials and para-musical products marketed to people learning music, and almost all of them address psychological concerns inappropriately with technical solutions. I.e. what's needed is either 1) an organic social environment that immerses a child in music for contextual learning, or, less ideally 2)an instructor with deep training in music learning theory and teaching. Stuff like this might be great for physical therapy, but it's 100% off the mark for music students.

You may be on the right track, but the survey you are using is more of a business tool to see what people will buy. If I were you, I would also use the scientific tools available to get a really good idea of what people can really use.

I hope I hear about your great success. It sounds like you have a lot of really useful ideas. It is exciting to hear about people doing new things. Good luck!

Michael