On-demand method of making PCB pallets using additive manufacturing
AssigneeJabil Inc.
InventorsLuke Rodgers, Erik Gjovik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of making a printed circuit board pallet is provided. The method of making the pallet illustratively includes the steps of: providing a base in a form of a polymer sheet stock; applying a fluid onto the base at selective locations where the pallet will be built-up to a three-dimensional form; depositing a polymer powder onto the base at the selective locations applied with the fluid; removing any excess amounts of the polymer powder not adhered to the fluid; and heating the pallet to fuse the polymer powder together and to the base.
Claims11
A method of making portions of a printed circuit board (PCB) pallet based on a predefined design of the PCB, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a base sheet of inorganic polymer sheet stock;
- applying a coalescing agent fluid onto the base sheet of the inorganic polymer sheet stock specifically at selective locations corresponding to the predefined design of the PCB to build up the PCB pallet;
- depositing a polymer powder on to the base sheet such that it adheres exclusively at the selective locations applied with the coalescing agent fluid, wherein the coalescing agent fluid is a monomer or oligomer of the polymer powder;
- removing any excess amounts of the polymer powder not adhered to the coalescing agent fluid;
- heating the polymer powder and the base sheet to fuse the polymer powder together and to the base sheet to thereby form a first layer of the portions of the PCB pallet;
- and
- repeating the applying, depositing, removing, and heating steps using the first layer, and subsequently produced layers of the portions, as subsequent ones of the base sheet until the PCB pallet is provided.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.