Patent ID: 6948650

Claim:
A dross removal and solder reclamation apparatus comprising: a molten-solder reservoir suitable for containing molten solder; an automatic dross-removal mechanism mounted so as to be extendable into the molten-solder reservoir and designed to remove dross from the molten-solder reservoir; a dross-separation device designed to separate molten solder from dross and positioned to receive dross removed by the automatic dross-removal mechanism from the molten-solder reservoir; a solder-reclamation receptacle suitable for containing molten solder and positioned to receive molten solder separated by the dross-separation device; and a conduit coupled with the solder-reclamation receptacle and with the molten-solder reservoir to provide a pathway via which molten solder can be transported from the solder-reclamation receptacle back to the molten-solder reservoir.