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Mass production

A project log for Ph0xx

Badge for Fri3d Camp based on the ESP32

wim-van-goolWim Van Gool 08/26/2018 at 10:570 Comments

For those wondering how we assembled the boards, we compiled a video of all the different steps. 

We started off with prototype machinery (Mechatronika M10 and Mechatronika MX70), manual solder paste dispensing using a eC-Stencil-Mate and reflowing them using the MR260 from Mechatronika which has 3 zones. The quality was good, but not perfect. But it was too slow for the amount of badges we had to assemble. Operating the machine for 24 hours on 2 days yielded us only 203 aasembled Ph0xx PCBs. Which led us to the next phase of the assembly. 

Mass production at More-at-Mere using high speed equipment and an 8 zone reflow oven. The machinery might not be the latest and newest available but damn, they're fast! The chip shooter has multiple pick-and-place heads, each having multiple nozzles. Instead of the head moving to pick up a part, the part tray is moved to the pickup location. The rotating carousel of pick-and-place heads, shown at the 22 minute mark, goes faster than the human eye can follow. We still did manual paste dispensing, which was an oversight from our side, next time we'll have to order the production stencil a bit earlier. The total time from the start of the line to just before the oven was only 47 seconds for a panel with 2 boards.

A big thanks to the team from More-At-Mere for the effort in getting 460 boards assembled in one day ans all the volunteers helping out with de testing and assembling of the boards. 

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