Prototype Assembly Methods

A high quality solderpaste print is not only important in a PCBA production environment but also for the manual assembly of prototypes.   I´m doing manual assembly for almost all of my PCB prototypes. In my experience, good solder paste printing is the key to making this process hassle-free and ensuring that no rework is required. Using a high-quality solder paste such as Loctite GC10 with a particle size classification of T4 or T5, even the assembly of fine-pitch components such as 0.4 mm WLCSPs and passive components down to 01005 is no problem. So far I have had fewer problems with hand-assembled prototypes than with factory assembled prototypes due to misplaced components or short circuits. This and the significantly faster availability compensate for the labour time that has to be invested in manual assembly. On top of that, it's a great exercise in the use of soldering tools, which is essential for any electronics designer.   For 0201 passives and smaller I´m using a round aperture in the solderpaste layer. This ensures that less solder paste sticks to the stencil when it is lifted off the board due to the reduced surface area of the stencil walls. By combining round apertures with a small stencil thickness very fine pitch component can be assembled. (The stencil print shown in the attached images was done with standard square apertures)   These are practices that I only use for manual assembly. The correct dimensioning of stencil openings and solder paste types according to IPC standards is the responsibility of the PCBA supplier for mass production.   #electronics #design #soldering #manufacturing #prototype

This is the single best method for producing production-grade prototypes Yet many designers have never heard of it. Vacuum or Polyurethane casting is a process where a master pattern is reproduced using a silicone mould tool. Did you know this can be done entirely in-house? The benefits are clear: - Excellent surface finishes - Undercuts allowed - Rigid & elastomeric materials - Great tolerances - Low-cost tooling Check out my 10-step guide to master vacuum casting in-house. Each step has a handy graphic to make it as clear as possible. In this complete design guide, I cover when to use vacuum casting, how to overmould, how to add threads and how to work with tight tolerances. Included are 3 graphs that compare the cost & and lead time for the top 4 rapid prototyping methods. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/e3i53ybx It took me three months and £3000 in materials and equipment to find the perfect method for reliably creating accurate polyurethane prototypes. With this guide, it should only cost around £400 in materials and equipment. Just remember to be patient and enjoy the process! 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥? 👍 + Share with your network to help them master DFM + Sign-up to our bi-weekly DFM newsletter: https://lnkd.in/g8AQHCGJ + Follow me for more Design for Manufacturing (DFM) content. Our mission @ Dezarc is to take the guesswork out of material selection by supplying designers & engineers worldwide with material sample kits. #manufacturing #productdesign #design #designengineering #dfm

Faster than FedEx! (a rapid prototyping success story) Several years ago we were working on a medical project involving a plunger / punch mechanism that had a diaphragm seal in the center. I had sketched up a design, thinking about how we would manufacture it (from the start) we found some silicone diaphragm valves from a vendor and they had 6-day shipping. in this case we didn't want to wait around to see if the idea worked. so we fired up the #formlabs SLA printer and printed these little compression molds, with 3mm dowels that we had on hand (for alignment of the two mold halves). I squished some jewelry casting #silicone between the molds and waited 15 minutes. total time, start to part, was about 6 hours that includes sketching, CAD, printing the mold, molding the parts, and testing. we quickly validated that this design idea would work, the assembly strategy would work, and functionally it would work once we had the right silicone materials. so now we could wait the one week lead time with less risk to the schedule I've also successfully used FDM molds with this casting silicone also... you just get a few more layer lines on the surface. so if you're not looking for a watertight seal FDM printing works also. but why do we care about speed in product development? is it because we're impatient? no, will maybe partly... it's because the only asset we can't replace is time. if I wait a week or two to make a design decision that week or two is gone. forever. we can't buy it back. so now your project will be 1 to 2 weeks late hitting the market. and that has real revenue implications. does that matter? maybe not if it happens once, but in R&D we're making hundreds of decisions. if every decision takes a one or two week lead time to make, we can set ourself back months, or years. think about ways to short circuit your exploration cycle. figure out what works as early as possible using the crudest means possible. test rigorously so that in 2-3 months from now you can look back and say "yes we are on the right track, because I identified these high-risk areas and tested them early." don't wait until your entire product is designed and documented to start testing your ideas. test individual bits and pieces of your concept as you are designing it. prototype (in parallel) several different variations and when you pick one you will feel confident that you have explored other options. and if you're stuck trying to figure out how to rapid prototype your ideas, call me or shoot me a DM and I'll help 763-344-1308 #rapidprototyping #design #engineering

One challenge when designing 3D printed products is how to assemble parts efficiently without relying on screws or glue. For my current project — a fully 3D printed GameBoy — I needed a simple way to clip the parts together while keeping the assembly clean and reversible. I ended up designing a snap hook system in SOLIDWORKS , combining the Snap Hook feature with the Indent function to create a flexible clip that locks perfectly with the second body. It’s a surprisingly fast way to prototype snap-fit mechanisms and iterate on assemblies directly in CAD. After printing the parts, the mechanism worked exactly as intended — always a satisfying moment when a design comes together. Next step: finishing the rest of the GameBoy build. I’m curious — when designing assemblies for 3D printed parts, do you usually rely on: 🔹 snap-fit systems 🔹 screws 🔹 magnets 🔹 or something else? 👉Check the original tutorial by Aryan Fallahi #solidworks #3dprinting #cad