Development of an automated system for soldering and the solder inspection of an assembly line

This paper presents an intelligent robot control system using an off-line programming to teach precise assembly task of electronic components in a flexible way. The task investigated consists of three jobs: heat caulking test, soldering on a circuit board, and checking of soldering defects on the back cover of a camera. This study investigates the remodelling of the most complicated cell in terms of accuracy and fault rate among the twelve cells in a camera back-cover assembly line. We have attempted to enhance soldering quality, to add task flexibility, to reduce failure rate, and to increase product reliability. This study modifies the cell structure, changes robots, improves soldering condition, implements the real-time control of assembly with vision data, and realizes an easier task teaching off-line programming.