Metal fusion bonding – Process – With condition responsive – program – or timing control
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-31
2003-04-22
Dunn, Tom (Department: 3653)
Metal fusion bonding
Process
With condition responsive, program, or timing control
C228S008000, C228S041000, C228S103000, C228S247000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06550663
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a preferred desktop device for automatic delivery of a metered quantity of soldering wire in accordance with settings of an operator.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As it is well known, there are several groups of inventions related to the metering and delivering of a soldering material. The first group represents various types of dispensers of soldering material (wire), which are designated to provide the operator with portions of this material (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,815,843, 4,690,318, 4,688,709, 4,408,730, 5,421,505 etc.). The devices vary greatly in their design; however, most of these devices are hand-held and require the continual use of one of the operator's hands. One exception is a device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,318, where instead of a hand-held dispenser, the operator has the feeding tube mounted on a head-worn device.
The second group of inventions comprises different types of soldering dispensers joined with a soldering gun or soldering iron for hand soldering operations. Very often such devices have some kind of a metering mechanism for soldering wire (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,792,228, 3,824,371, 3,852,565, 3,990,622, 4,199,096, 4,411,379, 4,521,673, 4,614,295, 4,793,541, 5,379,941 etc.). It is quite obvious that a soldering dispenser makes a soldering gun or soldering iron heavier and deprives the soldering process of its simplicity and flexibility.
The third group of inventions relates to the methods and devices for automatic soldering process that involves delivering the soldering material to a soldering area. The devices comprise, as a rule, in addition to the first two groups, more sophisticated automatic mechanisms for feeding and metering of the soldering wire to a soldering location (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,932,581, 5,261,590 etc.). The application of such devices allows for sufficient improvement of the soldering process, making it semiautomatic. However, the complexity of such soldering devices makes them applicable mostly for medium- and high-volume production only.
None of the inventions described above sufficiently increase the accuracy and quality of a hand-soldering process without significantly adding to the tasks required of the operator.
When preparing a soldered joint and particularly for fixing elements to a printed circuit board, the operator is required to follow the standards set out in the soldering handbook. It is important to use a sufficient amount of soldering material for fastening the component in question, or the wires to the circuit board. If insufficient amounts of soldering are utilized then the connection may not be complete. If excessive amounts of soldering are utilized then the connection will be excessive according to standards and will be more than likely refused by quality control for re-work which results in of course the expense of re-working. It is therefore advantageous to provide a precise amount of solder to the operator for the job in question.
Heretofore, the determination of the precise amount is left to the skill of the operator. There are many devices in the prior art which address providing soldering material to the operator. However, it is left up to the operator for the most part to determine exactly how much solder he will deposit on the tip of the soldering iron or the tool for each job to be done. Due to human error this amount is not accurately reproducible.
One particular reference in the art teaches marking the soldering material as it is advanced toward the operator so that the soldering material is separated by these marks into segments. The operator can then determine how many segments he needs for each job. This is an improvement over leaving the amount of solder selected to the skill of the operator, however it is insufficient, in view of the fact that the skill of operators varies. It difficult to acquire the services of skilled technicians that have the experience to place only precise amounts of soldering material on the tip of the iron.
Applicant has recently learned that JBC Industries S.A. has a product in development Model AL 2500 EU Ref. 2500200 according to their web site which alleges to define the length of soldering wire, the feed speed thereof and purporting to have an automatic cycle. No further details are known at this time. It is difficult to reach any conclusions in this regard.
The primary object of the invention is to provide a hand-soldering operator with a method a and a device which has the following advantages:
Sufficiently improves the quality of a hand-soldering process, particularly in the case of repetitive or similar soldering operation, by providing an operator with a precise dosage of soldering material.
Frees the hands of an operator from the customary periodic pulling of a soldering wire during soldering, thereby leaving the operator free to manipulate the soldering iron and to position and carefully hold an electronic component in position or the like.
Reduces the time of soldering.
Reduces the qualification and skill required from a hand-soldering operator for the same type of operation.
Reduces consumption of soldering material.
Provides a preferred portable desktop sized device.
Provides for use of soldering wire of different diameters.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide such a device that will measure a precise amount of soldering material of variable diameters to the technician in a simple device which is easy to use and ergonomically friendly.
Further and other objects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when considering the following summary of the invention, and the more detailed description of the preferred embodiments illustrated herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention describes the precise metering of soldering material realized in a preferred desktop preferably portable device designated for hand-soldering in small and medium volume operations. It combines the fully automated process of precise metering of the soldering wire for high accuracy and quality soldering with the freedom of a hand-operated soldering process.
According to a primary aspect of the invention there is therefore provided a device for metering a precise dose of soldering material to an operator, said device comprising a controller for controlling a supply of at least one continuous length of soldering material, preferably disposed in a coil and preferably on a spool, said device having at least one soldering material passage and preferably a channel for feeding a supply of at least one continuous length of soldering material to the operator, said passage and preferred channel having drive means disposed adjacent thereto for driving the continuous filament of material from the supply through said passage towards the technician, preferably said drive means being either a, preferred electric, motor or a stepped motor capable of being driven in stepped increments, said passage further having in association therewith at least one sensor and preferably at least one optical sensor for monitoring the position of the free end of said supply of at least one continuous length of soldering material, and in a preferred embodiment having three optical sensors disposed adjacent said passage and the preferred channel for sensing, the position of the free end of said supply of at least one continuous length of soldering material, the amount to be supplied to the operator, and for sensing when the supply of at least one continuous length of soldering material is depleted, and in one embodiment also for determining the feed rate for the soldering material, said soldering material exiting said passage and preferred channel proximate a mouth adjacent a convenient position for a technician and preferably having a preferably Teflon® coated surface and preferred notch adjacent said mouth to provide heat resistance to the tip of a soldering tool, preferably said device also having a sensor adjacent the mouth for determining when a soldering tool tip has acquired a dose of soldering material, and preferably being a
Dunn Tom
Hughes Ivor M.
Hughes Neil H.
Poletaev Leonid
Sarkis Marcelo K.
LandOfFree
Desktop soldering dispenser with automatic metering and... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Desktop soldering dispenser with automatic metering and..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Desktop soldering dispenser with automatic metering and... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3082854