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Manufacturing

Table of Contents 1 Housing Manufacturing 1.1 CNC Machining 1.2 Anodizing 2 PCB Manufacturing 2.1 PCB Supplier 2.2 PCB Population

The requirements of this project mandated that both 4 light units, and 4 thruster housings be manufactured to be handed over to RIT at the culmination of Senior Design. Each to be complete with all housing and electrical components necessary for operation.

Manufacturing Plan

Housing Manufacturing

CNC Machining

The burden of needing 8 units to hand over made it necessary to utilize the CNC machining capabilities of the Brinkman Manufacturing Laboratory. After the prototype was tested and verified, the drawings were given to the Brinkman Lab Staff. John Bonzo was the main contributor in the manufacturing of the similar parts. The first parts run were thoroughly checked for dimensional tolerances, once they were cleared or problems corrected, the rest of the parts could be made. With a combination of manual preparation and CNC finishing using a Mazak Super Quick Turn 15M-Y Mark II, all parts were machined. Some parts required secondary operations on a vertical milling machine (Okuma Ace Center MB-46VAE) to achieve pull part geometry.

Please refer to Manufacturing Plan for complete account of manufacturing needs.

See Detail Design page for complete drawing and models of housing components.

Anodizing

The need for anodizing the housing portions was clear in order to improve the corrosion resistance of the aluminum. The anodizing also greatly decreases the dissimilar metal corrosion that will occur between the aluminum housing and the stainless steel fasteners. The housings have a Type-II anodizing coat, which is done by submerging the aluminum parts into a bath of sulfuric acid, a direct current is run through the solution. The parts act as the anode, oxygen is released at the surface of the anode, creating a coating of aluminum oxide on the part's surface.

The anodizing specialists we decided to go with:

BSV Metal Finishers, Inc.

750 Saint Paul St.

Rochester, NY 14605

Phone: (585) 454-0550

http://bsventerprises.com/bsvmetalfinishers.htm

PCB Manufacturing

PCB Supplier

The need for a reasonably small quantity of PCBs required the use of an outside vendor with prototyping capabilities, since our quantities are not enough to warrant the cost of tooling to set up a permanent production run.

The company we chose to use is:

Advanced Circuits

http://www.4pcb.com

1-800-979-4722

Their capabilities matched our needs the best and also offered the best pricing fo 4-layer boards, and with the use of their student specials there is no minimum order requirements. The 66 each deal offered 30 in² of 4-layer board with both sides screen printed and solder masked for only $66.00, pus a $50.00 step and repeat fee per order for putting multiple parts on a single board.

For final PCB schematics please see the Electrical Design Information Page

PCB Population

The Surface Mount Technologies (SMT) Lab in CIMS was utilized to populate all boards. There we were able to use a re-flow solderer to mount the SMC parts with minimal hassle. There is also equipment to check and inspect finished parts. This was useful in troubleshooting boards and verifying that all parts had been wetted properly.

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