Three-axis machine for the production of printed circuit boards (pcb)

Abstract

It is a recognized fact, the high level of technological dependence of our country and it is considered that one of the fundamental variables that lead to this dependence is the low capacity for the development and manufacture of machines and prototypes of machines for industrial production processes. Being the development of the electronic control system a crucial activity in the process of designing a machine, we have decided to develop machinery for the manufacture of printed circuits. In this first part of the project we identified the workflow that leads to the printed circuit prototype in digital format, from a software application in which the electronics engineer edits an electronic circuit (CAD), to another format (CAM) that allows the machine to manufacture the printed circuit. In this last stage the machine is controlled by another software application. The workflow was reproduced with both proprietary and free software versions, finding that by both methods similar results could be obtained. These first results allow us to state that indeed the process of manufacturing printed circuits can be done by using specialized free software, achieving similar results to those obtained by using proprietary software. In a second part of the project, we will proceed to manufacture and assemble the machine to perform the corresponding empirical tests.