Large Multi-Layer Panel-Drilling System

This paper describes the mechanical, electrical, and control features of an advanced four-station, twelve-spindle, large printed-circuit panel-drilling system. The system was designed as a production tool to produce over 35,000 0.4-mm-diameter holes in a panel containing twenty layers of copper and nineteen layers of epoxy glass. Built around a precision four-station x-y positioning system with three motor-driven spindles over each work station, the system includes a minicomputer, a printer, a display station, and a controller/interface station. Drilling parameters, such as infeed, outfeed, top of stroke, bottom of stroke, and spindle revolution rates, are all computer-controlled.