Automation of Capacitor Discharge Welding (CDW) has not been investigated in
industry due to the limited understanding of the process. The US Department of Energy's Albany Research Center (ALRC) has done an extensive study of the process and reported applications of welds in the manufacture of electro-mechanical products such as...
The fundamental objective of a design engineer in performing tolerance technology is to transform functional requirements into tolerances on individual parts based on existing data and algorithms for design tolerance analysis and synthesis. The transformation of functional requirements into tolerances must also consider the existing process capabilities and manufacturing costs...
For some decades, the assembly of printed circuit boards (PCB), had been thought to be an ordinary example of mass production systems. However, technological factors and competitive pressures have currently forced PCB manufacturers to deal with a very high mix, low volume production environment. In such an environment, setup changes...
Miniature energy and chemical systems (MECS) are miniature thermal, fluid, and chemical devices in the mesoscale size range between a sugar cube and a human fist. MECS take advantage of improved rates of mass and heat transfer that have been observed at the microscale. There are many potential applications for...
Capacitor discharge welding (CDW) is a rapid solidification joining process under
the influence of one-dimensional thermal gradients. Although CDW is useful for joining
small parts and dissimilar metals, CD welded joints have a large variability in weld
strength. CDW is not widely accepted because of a lack of automated process...
Since the dawn of the computer age, there has been a push to create miniature
devices. These devices were initially integrated circuit (IC) devices to perform
calculations for computers. As the technology progressed, the scope of the devices
diverged to included microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices, meaning that the devices
perform mechanical...
Materials which can be changed in shape and size when exposed to a magnetic field are called magnetostrictive materials. The magnetostrictive material was developed for use in the many actuator industries. A single crystal of magnetostrictive material is used to maximize its magnetostrictive response. It can be produced by the...
As the drive continues to reduce the size of Printed Wiring Assemblies (PWAs),
improve performance of electronic assemblies, and reduce costs of these products,
reliable secondary (bottom) side reflow operations must be developed. Attaching Surface
Mount Technology (SMT) components to the secondary side of a Printed Circuit Board
(PCB) is...
Micromanufacturing consists of processes for producing structures, devices or systems with feature sizes measured in micrometers. Micromanufacturing began in the mid-1960's with microelectronics fabrication technology. In the 1980's, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) began to be developed, in which electrical and mechanical subsystems were integrated at small scales. More recently, Microtechnology-based Energy...
Several 316 stainless steel meso-scopic devices were made using a diffusion
soldering process. Tensile strength and pressure drop of the devices were
measured and metallurgical examinations were made of the joints. Continuous
bonds were observed in the sample cross-section specimens. Strengths of the
diffusion soldered joints were up to 56%...