🧑‍🔧 Melting solder 🔥 To melt again 📄 To rearrange layout

to reflow

7.9

To melt solder again by heating to form or fix joints between electronic parts

verb
/ˌriːˈfloʊ/

Specialized

: reflujo

To repair the faulty connection, I will reflow the solder on the circuit board.

Examples

Surface-mounted potentiometers are epoxied to the front of the board, and the assembly is put into a high-temperature infrared oven to reflow solder.

Academic text (2000)
I got a bit happy with the hot air pressure and caused a few solder bridges, so here I'm reflowing the pins to remove the solder bridges.

Blog text (28)
However, I decided to reflow the CPU and the RAM slot is now working properly.
So that is it completely reflowed and the wires stripped back and done again.
After troubleshooting, the technician decided to reflow the solder to ensure a solid joint.
If the connection is weak, you may need to reflow the solder for better conductivity.

Synonyms

to solder

vsto reflow

Specialized

8 7.0

To join metal parts by melting a soft metal between them

focuses on reheating existing joints, often for electronic component repair

to dip solder

vsto reflow

Specialized

9.0

To solder something by dipping it into a bath of hot liquid metal

uses heat to remelt joints rather than immersion mainly for circuit components

Surface Forms

reflow infinitive

reflowed past

reflowed past participle

reflowing present participle

reflows third person singular

Morphology

reflow = flow (semi-transparent) = re + flow

The verb is transparently 're-' + 'flow', but its application to soldering is a technical usage that not all learners will predict.

Etymology

Reflow comes from the parts re- 'again' and flow 'move like a liquid', so the verb means to make something 'flow' once more. In electronics it means to heat the solder so it melts and 'flows' again to form or repair a joint.