solderbaat^1.0

Welcome to the home of Precision SATLAB's SolderBaat!

Precision SATLAB is a group of mechanical engineering students from the University of Notre Dame working to develop an automated pick-and-place soldering machine named SolderBaat. To read more about the team, click here. To read more about the current concept, look on down the page...

Click Here to download the full project nugget, a concise one-page slide that summarizes the entire design project.

The purpose of this project was to develop an automated system to assemble, solder, and test a predetermined circuit board. They key issues associated with this project were all centered on the concept of precision. To counteract the overwhelming need for precision, the Precision SATLab group developed a model with the key feature of adjustability. The system that was designed, SolderBaat, will accurately grab a circuit element from its holder, transport it to the circuit board, and make a precise soldered connection. SolderBaat’s user interface contains two simple buttons for start up and emergency stop, while providing the operator with constant feedback throughout the assembly process.

Below is a sketch of the current concept:

The specifics of the current design as stated in the Group Concept Memo include vertical movement via a scissor lift, horizontal translation through a lead screw, component gripping ability by a solenoid, precision alignment from adjustability in every major module, double soldering irons, and a solder feed mechanism. The system features intelligence through position feedback from limit switches, soldering temperature from a temperature sensor, an LCD-based user interface, and motion control of two stepper motors, a geared DC motor, and a solenoid.

How will SolderBaat match up to the competition? It turns out the only competition is itself. In order to evaluate how successful the future product is, we've developed a grading rubric against which SolderBaat's performance will be measured. The main emphasis in the rubric is each specific technical requirement necessary to solder, assemble, and test.

The following list reflects recent updates made to the Precision SATLAB website.

• 09/05/06 - Basic static web page loaded into directory
• 09/12/06 - Graphic of current design concept added to basic site
• 09/15/06 - Website layout template developed
• 09/16/06 - Organization format for website defined
• 09/17/06 - News bar and deadline bar added to right column
• 09/18/06 - Design process, product visuals, documentation, and team sections all outlined and added to current website
• 09/19/06 - Website released publicly on Precision SATLAB webspace hosted by the University of Notre Dame
• 09/26/06 - Updates to add latest PDR's, to revise documentation layout, and to present the newest design concept sketch
• 10/13/06 - Reformatting to correspond with latest website grading rubric
• 10/30/06 - Addition of grading rubric
• 11/13/06 - Addition of a video showing soldering test process and finalization for draft documentation
• 12/04/06 - Addition of videos, animations, tast tracking summaries, and the new executive summary; ready for final documentation submission.