Voltera printer - the beginning..

[tzok]

I'm using solder pastes available on Polish market, so don't know if you can buy them in the UK. They are Easy Print solder pastes by AG Termopasty.
I have two of these:
Leaded: Sn62Pb36Ag2
Lead Free: Sn96,5Ag3Cu0,5

[exxos]

Pasting a PCB (again) but this time with parts on it. There is a "tool height" option to lift the head during probing and printing so it doesn't bash the PCB all over the place





Trying to unclog nozzles as well currently. There is a thread on the Voltera forum, but basically suggests acetone, so giving that a try. IPA doesn't seem to do anything..

[exxos]

I have been printing with the blue nozzle which is slightly smaller than the standard one.. Anyway because it was the only unblocked nozzle I had at the time.. But the thing is I had to really ramp up the pressure to get it to print at all and of course lower the speed because the base was really struggling to come out of the nozzle..

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Though after printing around 50 boards, the paste started throwing up over the board It seems whatever was blocked was now unblocked.. So I adjusted the printer and recalibrated and managed to break the fine tip of the nozzle while I was at it, so I had to recalibrate it all again

Thing is, before the nozzle broke, it would print 2 squares and then a line in the pad..

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Of course the amount of travelling and passes it has to do per pad is rather a lot even when running at higher speeds...

With the broken nozzle and the tipping a lot larger now I can do this..

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So literally one pass on every part is all that is needed.. And now printing is like five times faster!

But I don't believe the nozzle can be clogged so easily even from new to start with. Considering the paste came out of the same tube.. It does not make sense why the paste would suddenly be incredibly hard to get through the nozzle, then all of a sudden "unblock" and flow really freely.

I do have a theory to put to the test next time I refill the cartridge though.. Because this last time I used a new "clean" syringe cartridge, because I did not have time to clean out the one I was using previously..

So what I suspect is happening, the rubber bung inside the cartridge which the piston pushes on, I think the rubber is just literally sticking to the cartridge self and not moving.. I think the incredible pressure needed to get the paste of flow could just be the pressure needed to stretch the rubber bung enough for the paste to flow. Whereas the bung itself was not actually physically moving.. The NAFTA printing a lot of boards, the pressure got so great that the rubber bunk freed itself from its stuck position..

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So next time I refill the cartridge, I'm going to put some flux on a cotton board and wipe the flux all over the inside of the cartridge to act as a lubricant for the rubber plunger..

I just find it almost impossible that I used I think, five new nozzles and every single one blocked up pretty much straight away.. It was why I was blaming the paste, but the same pace came out of the same "master syringe" of paste. So I cannot believe the paste went off in the space of a week to the point where it could not flow out of the nozzle even with new ones fitted.. Which is as said above, just leads me to think the nozzles are not actually blocking up at all and it is the actual plunger itself sticking inside the syringe cartridge..

[Icky]

Oops I seem to have a Voltera on its way to me

[exxos]

Oops I seem to have a Voltera on its way to me

[Icky]

It's going to have to sit on top of the Giant Panda printer for its home. Now I am stacking printers

[exxos]

It's going to have to sit on top of the Giant Panda printer for its home. Now I am stacking printers

Like this you mean ?

IMG_6222.JPG (236.74 KiB) Viewed 4942 times

[exxos]

I've been trying the leaded paste for the past couple hours, but this one so far seems worse Half the time it doesn't want to stick to the board, then when it does, it seems very "stringy" in that when the head lifts, the solder doesn't "break" and pulls up the line it just put down I tried a new nozzle, but even priming the thing, it blocked up in seconds.. so I can't really say if leaded paste is better or not as it just seems to clog the same. If anything it would seem worse, but its hard to tell as I still haven't been able to print enough of anything to really tell.

I'm going to see if I can unblock my nozzles again, and go back to leadfree and see how quick the nozzles block up again...

[exxos]

Been trying to unblock nozzles all day, they look unblocked, print half a chip then "dead" again.. So.. I forced IPA though it with a syringe...

Near the end you can see how free the IPA shoots out... Then 2 seconds later, its totally blocked again

[DoG]

Maybe needs more liquid flux?