| The 1990's has become the decade of electronics manufacturing. Never before has electronics been a major element of nearly every product sector. Surface mount components have become the choice of industry to solve problems met at the complex circuit boards.; As the piece cost of completed circuit boards increases and production quantities decrease, rework of defective boards has become an important part of the production process. Surface mount component lead pitch has also been decreasing, which has been increasing the required training and skill level of the rework operators. Automated rework provides a solution to these problems.; The function of the automated rework cell is to remove and replace individual SMD components from a fully populated circuit board without damaging the board, the surrounding components, or the solder joints of the surrounding components. There are five major steps in performing rework operation: defective component removal, residual solder removal, solder paste placement, new component placement, and solder reflow.; This thesis describes a proof of concept, low volume production, experimental, prototype system for the automated rework of fine pitch components that is under development as part of the Electronics Manufacturing Program (EMP) of the Center for Integrated Electronics and Electronics Manufacturing (CIEEM) at Rensselaer. The results from experiments performed on the prototype system show that the vision guidance, removal, cleaning, solder paste dispensing, component placement and laser soldering can all be performed successfully for automated circuit board rework with highly reliable solder joints. |
