The Novosibirsk State Technical University (NETI) has equipped a CNC machine with machine vision for automating the drilling and milling of printed circuit boards. This will ensure a reduction in scrap, an increase in drilling accuracy and an increase in production speed.
The development took the first place at the exhibition of student projects in the nomination "Engineering project". The project team includes students of the Faculty of Mechatronics and Automation Andrey Dyadyunov, Stepan Lugovoy and Artyom Grout.
"We signed up for a hackathon, formed a team and received a task for one of the instrument—making companies - to make an automated machine with machine vision for drilling and milling printed circuit boards. Unlike our analogues, the board is automatically positioned on the table thanks to machine vision, you do not need to fix anything, put it down and forgot. There is such a thing as a mask on the board — this is the top layer, where all the holes that will need to be drilled are shown. The camera puts a mask on the board and finds the holes, then everything is drilled and milled automatically. Our machine requires only monthly maintenance — to change the drills and milling cutter. When working with it, you need an operator who will put the board, load the mask," said one of the developers, a 1st year student of the Faculty of Mechatronics and Automation Andrey Dyadyunov.
According to the developers, potential consumers of their product are manufacturers of printed circuit boards. Such boards are used in various fields: in the space industry, in mechanical engineering and in instrument engineering. The production facilities are mostly not the newest machines, and foreign analogues are expensive and difficult to maintain, so the issue of import substitution is very relevant. The CNC machine will be assembled from domestic parts, and domestic electronics will also be used.
"Full automation of the technological process in the manufacture of printed circuit boards will lead to a reduction in defects, an increase in the speed of production and an increase in profits. The milling cutter passes two centimeters in one second. We calculated that we would scan the entire circuit board in one and a half minutes. At the moment, we have ordered all the parts for the machine, the electronics have already arrived. Now we are finishing the MVP. We plan to assemble the machine in June, set up and edit the software part by mid—August," added Andrey Dyadyunov.
In the future, it is planned to modernize the machine in order to expand its functionality and reach the entire production chain — this will be not only milling and drilling, but also processing of printed circuit boards.