Parallax's New Selective Solder Machine
Matt Gilliland
Posts: 1,406
Hey Everybody-
Our ACE Protech Selective Solder Machine (KISS 102) is sitting inside a tractor-trailer rig in our parking lot right now. Tomorrow morning we un-load it with the help of our Fabulous Forklift Operator (David).
BTW, "KISS stands for "Keep it Simple Soldering"...
The stage is set. The pre-wiring and pre-ducting and pre-nitrogen piping are all in place.
This machine is really cool! It's designed to automatically "hand-solder" components to PCB's. Basically it's like a little tiny solder "fountain" that wipes its way across the bottom of a circuit board - but very selectively (hence, its name). Think like a "wave" but in the shape of a "bubble".
One of its main benefits is that we will now be able to "hand-solder" in volumes that could not possibly be cost-effective here in the US. And since many products don't reach the threshold of over-seas production cost effectiveness, we'll be able to do them in house with better quality control and faster turn-around.
This alone makes some of our "product ideas" financially possible. The Li-ion Power Packs will be produced in volume on this machine (after the surface mount stuff is PNP'd and ovened).
More Pics and Movies to come!
-Matt
Our ACE Protech Selective Solder Machine (KISS 102) is sitting inside a tractor-trailer rig in our parking lot right now. Tomorrow morning we un-load it with the help of our Fabulous Forklift Operator (David).
BTW, "KISS stands for "Keep it Simple Soldering"...
The stage is set. The pre-wiring and pre-ducting and pre-nitrogen piping are all in place.
This machine is really cool! It's designed to automatically "hand-solder" components to PCB's. Basically it's like a little tiny solder "fountain" that wipes its way across the bottom of a circuit board - but very selectively (hence, its name). Think like a "wave" but in the shape of a "bubble".
One of its main benefits is that we will now be able to "hand-solder" in volumes that could not possibly be cost-effective here in the US. And since many products don't reach the threshold of over-seas production cost effectiveness, we'll be able to do them in house with better quality control and faster turn-around.
This alone makes some of our "product ideas" financially possible. The Li-ion Power Packs will be produced in volume on this machine (after the surface mount stuff is PNP'd and ovened).
More Pics and Movies to come!
-Matt
Comments
There was a Welcoming Committee...
...and a Parade with only One Float...
...we let the "cat out of the bag"...
...and gave her new home...isn't she purty?
-Matt
Pray tell?
DJ
As I understand it, Nitrogen prevents solder "bridging" and displaces oxygen which minimizes oxidation of the soldered joint. Without it, the joints look pretty awful. Seems like an expensive thing, but when you factor in the time that the machine saves, and the quality that it produces, it's really a small price to pay.
-Matt
'
A few years ago: I saw a video tour of a solder rework class room.Each rework station had a HP bottle of nitrogen at it.I just assumed this was the lack of an air-compressor, But now I know what the nitrogen was for.
'
I'll have to try using nitrogen on my home made rework station instead of compressed air.
'
P.S. nitrogen is pretty cheap when compared to other gases.
Can't wait to see your progress with the machine. I wonder what running one of those machines is like....
Bring on the nitrogen,
Ken Gracey
Sorry Ken - No rest for the wicked...see you on the 'morrow!
-Matt
Hmmm...ok - makes sense.
Thank you!
That new machine sounds wonderful (and expensive).
I'd sure like to see it in operation. Does it use the big blue
nitrogen tanks or will you have a liquid nitrogen container
outside somewhere?
I bet it does get expensive when you have to hire a lot
of people and train them to hand solder boards.
Can't wait to see pics and vids of this gadget :-)
That sounds awesome! Can't wait to see what some of those products might be.
http://www.ace-protech.com/videos/KISS101B.wmv
-Matt
You'll see it in action in about a week. I'm as anxious as you are about getting it running
Fun to work at Parallax? Aw, that's just an illusion. But I'll tell you one thing for certain, and this important fact is true no matter what you do and where you do it. If you enjoy your profession then it's hardly work at all but really rewarding. Some Parallax people use these machines for work and hobby. This kind of approach makes "work" far more enjoyable and it brings benefits to product development. We've only had one problem - last October somebody put a pumpkin in the laser cutter. That was an expensive mistake and I still don't haven't identified the pumpkin engraver though everybody else in the office probably knows who committed the inside job.
And if you want to find out if it really is fun at Parallax, the offer for a future internship still stands. You have to be old enough to rent your own room and get back and forth to Parallax each day.
Ken Gracey
When I am old enough I will take you up on your internship offer. It would be great real world experience in the field, and a chance to see (and work at) Parallax. I won't put a pumpkin in the laser cutter. :-) Which brings me to the obviously posed question: What made this an expensive mistake? Did you have to clean the internals of the machine?
P.S. While talking of business, this brings me to one final and unrelated question: Does the mail delivery device I built for you last year still function correctly, or did you ever get it hooked up? (I won't be upset if you haven't) Just wanted to make sure.
Thanks,
Microcontrolled
The mail delivery device worked great for a few weeks until the accountant discovered that FedEx offers an automatic e-mail notification the minute a package is dropped off. After she started using that our little project looked like its time had come and gone. I think you asked the same question in another thread but I never replied due to lack of time and then it fell off my radar. Thanks for a job well-done!
Ken Gracey
-Phil
That's funny. When a salesman came by our vet clinic to demo a laser scalpel system one of his selling points (aside from the ubiquitous "It pays for itself!") was that it was great for carving pumpkins. Are there any Parallax employees who used to work in a vet clinic?
I'm amazed that the solder bubble's shape can be controlled so well. I realize that molten solder has very high surface tension, but I wonder if there's more to the shaping process than that.
-Phil
As long as it worked fine while it lasted.... I guess you could still use it as a digital clock, or a cool doorbell, or something. :-) Still, thanks for hiring me, I really appreciate it!
Thanks,
Microcontrolled
Hey Roger! Guess you made a safe trip home to New Orleans. Thank you for coming to UPEW and it was great to meet you.
Well, the dumpster in this case is my shelf in the office. And the hardware is just going to be re-purposed for another project by Microcontrolled in the future. Or, I'll just hang on to it until he comes to Parallax for his future internship. That way he could see how far he has come. Nothing demonstrates progress like looking at something you made several years ago, at least it's this way in my case.
Ken Gracey
Being reacquainted with old work can be bittersweet. Did I really spend all that time writing a 8035 cross-assembler, or the graphics library for the short-lived and now long-defunct HP150 touchscreen not quite PC-compatible PC? I have had the experience of literally throwing my own stuff in the dumpster, and also of discarding stuff I'd been saving for years upon realizing that it really had become useless. Am I really going to use some ca. 1985 process controller to do an automation project today when I can get much better functionality for less than $50 and it won't use a hundredth of the power? I am hanging on to the last HP150 system for nostalgia but one day it will go too. At this point I don't think I have any way to get data out of it, since there are no compatible diskette drives (if they even work any more). I might be able to use a serial cable. It's doubtful that there's anything on there worth the effort that I didn't port out long ago anyway.
I also still have the TRS-80 color computer I bought on the company nickel and used for testing printers. If I make it back to UPEW I might send a care package ahead with some of this stuff for the freebie table.
Anyway, UPEW was a blast. It was great to see the facility and meet you and everyone else. I also snagged a BOE bot (I took the obvious return of dubious provenance in the bag, not the new one in the box) and Penguin board set off the free table and I'm thinking it's time to play with robots some more. It's funny how priorities get sorted. I could buy a BOE bot if I wanted, and could probably even con my boss into paying for it. But I've got other things to do. But there it is, not just free but looking forlorn and almost asking to be used, and I did like playing with the robot I built back in 2002 but it's kind of a hog and needs new wheels. And then I realized what the Penguin board kit was. And then I realized, well, I need a PING module and so I had to buy that. Arrived today. Didn't even try to expense it. This is purely play, and like a lot of people my age I probably don't really do enough of that.
If you or any of the other Parallax folk are going to be in the New Orleans area give me a PM or email, and I can show you where I work. While my corporate masters are not the sort to come to something like UPEW themselves, I know they'd love to introduce themselves to any Parallax people who might be available and show off our own facility. For that matter, I think I can safely extend the same invitation to other forum members. Our nickel tour doesn't have a pick and place machine or CNC mill, but it does have thousand pound test weights and some big honking heavy capacity testing machines as well as lab balances capable of weighing micrograms. Oh, and there's some guy who has two computers one with 2 monitors (on internet) and another with 3 (behind firewall) and a whole bunch of Parallax hardware...
That "cable bundle" coming down the ducting consists of power, compressed air, grounding wire, network cable, and compressed nitrogen.
Nitrogen tanks are arriving later this week, just in time for the multi-day training session. I'll post video as soon as we're making something real.
It's quite possible that the first board to be 'KISSed' will be the (much fabled) Li-ion board :-)
-Matt