Design of an automated sorting and orienting machine for electronic pins

At the power electronics manufacturer SynQor, the printed circuit board (PCB) assembly line is fully automated with the exception of the step which inserts electronic pins into the PCBs. Past attempts to automate this process have resulted in two unreliable machines that are not in use on the production line. Thus, electronic pin insertion is currently a manual process. The design proposed in this thesis for an automated pin insertion system separates the sorting and orienting of the pin from the insertion of the pin into a PCB. This system decoupling allows for more reliable pin delivery, which can in turn increase the insertion speed and reliability. This thesis focuses on sorting and orienting of the pin. The resulting design takes pins from a bulk state to an oriented state and inserts them in a pin holding magazine. Preliminary trials of the system show promise as an efficient way of preparing oriented pins for use by a pin insertion mechanism, but more experimentation is needed to test the robustness and speed of the sorting system.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Chang, Michelle Sueway

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David E. Hardt.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78162

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/78162