Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

This is something a little different, so I figured I'd share.

At work we have a few circuit boards that we have to pot. For anyone who doesn't know what that means, its essentially covering part of the board with an adhesive to protect the active components from the environment. Typically the adhesive is UV cure, so you apply the adhesive then expose to a UV light to cure it.

We currently do this manually with a syringe, so I had the idea to get a Rostock and replace the plastic extruding nozzle with an adhesive extruding nozzle. I figured I could use some of the outputs from the RAMBO to turn a UV light on and off, and open and close the solenoid for the nozzle.

After explaining the financial benefit to my manger, he loved the idea. Right now we spend ~32$ per board just in adhesive, if we buy the adhesive in bulk (not in syringes), it'd bring the prince down to under 6$ a board. If we do a hundred or so boards a week, the 1200$ Rostock looks like a bargain! So I ordered one and sourced a pressure pot and UV light from our R&D closet.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to use the UV light yet, I don't know if I'm going to just put a flood light at the top or have the carriage carry around the UV light wand.

There will be lots of experimenting, but I'm anxious to see how it turns out. This will also be a test of the Rostocks reliability/longevity, because when I figure everything out, it will be working its ass off!

I attached a few pictures of the Loctite parts I have, I'll keep pictures coming as I make progress.


This is the pressure pot, and the nozzle.
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v737/6bolt2g/Pot%20Bot/IMG_1238_zps32f80097.jpg[/img]

This is the UV light (Sorry for the crappy picture, I'll try to get better ones tomorrow)
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v737/6bolt2g/Pot%20Bot/IMG_1239_zpsc3f3bfd1.jpg[/img]

The best part is, I'm getting paid to play with a Rostock!

If anyone has any experience with something like this, I'd love some input!

Oh man! This is gonna be sooooo awesome! Make sure to post LOTS of pics, so we can see how it goes!

I've been curious about 3D printing on a board to mask it for photo-etching... That seems like it would be up your alley

There was an interesting discussion a week or two ago about the different possibilities for fabricating circuit boards on a printer.



Keep experimenting, that's what it's all about!

I'm pretty interested in this as well, on my to do list is to try using UV curable epoxy in a paste estruder coupled with a UV source.
Eventually the intent would be to do the same thing with a Piezo electric inkjet cartridge if I can find some epoxy with a low enough viscosity.

Update?

I'd love to see how this went as well.