Robot solderers excell in repetitive tasks

22 February 2006 Manufacturing / Production Technology, Hardware & Services

The Apollo Seiko range of in-line and bench-top robotic soldering units from Hawker Richardson has been developed for repetitive selective soldering applications where solder joint quality and consistency are essential. This enables the units to overcome the problems of operator fatigue associated with manual systems on long, repetitive runs.

The L-Cat-EVO 4430 has an X-Y speed of 750 mm/sec and 100 programs with 100 000 points per program. The soldering temperature can be customised inside each of 198 soldering profiles to suit each specific application. These specialised soldering robots have high accuracy motors and encoders that allow them to achieve a 0,01 mm resolution (with 0,02 mm repeatability). The compact systems incorporate irons and solder wire feeders.

Various configurations are possible. A two-head dual iron unit is available that can solder two joints at the same time. This is suitable for regularly-located and evenly-spaced solder joints. Additionally, with a twin shuttle enclosure and base, the work can be placed in the twin shuttle fixture. This 'load while solder' concept provides maximum robot utilisation, achieving high automatic soldering efficiency. For high quantity PCB production, four robots can be linked via a conveyor to form a multiple robot inline system.

The L-Cat-EVO 4430 model covers an X-Y area of 400 x 300 mm (model 4330 covers 300 x 300 mm and model 4540 covers 500 x 400 mm). Nitrogen units for cleaning PCB surfaces from oxidation, fume extractors and tip cleaners are offered as options.

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