Industrial sourcing · China to Europe

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Buyer guide · Electronics & assembly

Wave soldering machine from China

Most listings under the name wave soldering machine are selective soldering machines, which solder one joint at a time, so the first quote you get may be for a different process from the one your boards need.

Ask about this machine ↗Where the numbers come from

Written and listings checked 30 September 2026. Every figure on this page names its source.

What you are actually comparing.

Two quotes, one machine name

What hides inside the price

Full wave or selective

A full wave passes the whole underside of the board over molten solder, fast, and needs pallets to mask SMD parts. A selective machine moves a small nozzle joint by joint, slower, with no masking. Nine of fourteen listings we checked were selective.

Solder pot material and size

Lead-free alloys attack ordinary steel over time. Ask the pot and impeller material, the pot volume, and what the first solder fill costs you, because that is not in the machine price.

Fluxer and preheat

Spray fluxing gives an even coat; foam fluxing is simpler. Preheat length decides whether thick multilayer boards reach temperature at your conveyor speed.

Nitrogen and dross

Nitrogen cuts dross, which is solder you throw away. Ask whether the machine is nitrogen ready and how much dross it makes per shift in air.

Conveyor and pallets

Finger conveyor width range and angle. For mixed boards, ask who designs and supplies the masking pallets and at what cost per board type.

Before you ask for a price.

Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.

Board widths and the share of through-hole joints per board.
SMD parts on the solder side, which decide whether you need pallets or a selective machine.
Solder alloy you use, lead-free or not.
Boards per hour and number of board types.
Extraction available for flux fume, and whether nitrogen is on site.

Turn the claim into a demonstration.

Require this	A pass looks like
Solder a counted batch of your boards, with your flux and alloy.	Hole fill on through-hole joints inspected against IPC-A-610 at the class you build, bridges and skips counted and recorded.
Measure the dross removed after a set run time.	Dross weight recorded, so you can price solder use per shift.
Check preheat by thermocouple on your thickest board.	Topside temperature before the wave reaches your flux maker's window at your conveyor speed.

The documents that must arrive with it.

EU Declaration of Conformity citing 2006/42/EC, or Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 for delivery from 20 January 2027, plus Low Voltage 2014/35/EU and EMC 2014/30/EU.
Manual in the language of the country of use, with pot material, fill volume and exhaust requirement.
Spare parts list for pump impeller, nozzles, spray fluxer and conveyor fingers.

The one people forget. The exhaust and fume specification. Flux fume extraction is your duty as the employer, and without the machine's stated exhaust volume you cannot size it or show the inspector that you did.

When this is the wrong machine.

Buy something else if

Named, not hedged

Your boards are mostly surface mount with a few connectors.

A reflow oven for the SMD parts and a selective soldering machine or hand soldering for the connectors.

You solder single sensitive joints on assembled products.

A laser soldering machine, which heats only the joint.

Where the numbers come from.

We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.

Listings · 14Fourteen marketplace listings for wave soldering machines, checked September 2026: nine were selective soldering machines, three were full wave machines asking US$5,300 to US$38,000, one a desktop unit and one a soldering robot on a conveyor. Asking prices, not landed cost.
GAPGAP - no supplier quotations logged for this machine yet. Three to five quotations for one configuration would give a real price spread.
GAPGAP - no dross or solder use figures held for any listed machine. A measured run on one machine would give a real consumable cost.

Related machines.

Reflow oven. Choose a reflow oven when surface mount parts are most of your board.
Laser soldering machine. Choose a laser soldering machine for a few heat-sensitive joints where a wave would be too much.

Every machine we source in this area is on the Electronics & assembly page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.

Straight answers

Questions buyers ask about this machine.

Chinese vs European wave soldering machine: what am I paying for?+

Mainly pot and pump durability with lead-free alloys, fluxer control and service. Ask for the pot material in writing and compare that first.

What goes on a wave soldering inspection checklist?+

The three tests above, a look inside the empty pot for weld quality and coating, and the conveyor running level across its width.

What CE documents does a wave soldering machine need?+

A Declaration of Conformity naming its directives and standards, a technical file and a manual in your language, including the hot solder and fume risks.

Who is the importer if I buy from a Chinese factory?+

You, when your business brings it in. Your name and address go on the machine or its papers, and you keep the declaration.

Contact

Tell us what you need.

Send a machine, a quotation you want checked, or a question. We reply with what we would look at first.