Bench-top Fluid Dispensing: Easy When You Know How

Manual, semi-automatic and automatic bench-top dispensing systems represent the three disciplines of fluid formulation. Today, these disciplines can be found in applications ranging from prototype development and shop floor production, through to rework and in-field repair as superior valve technology and microprocessor control have continued to make their mark on the modern manufacturing industries.

The success of the bench-top dispensing process, as with any other process, relies heavily on making the right choice of dispensing equipment and dispensing consumables to suit the application.  Guiding the manufacturer through the specification of dispensing technology in a high technology manufacturing environment and focusing on the unique benefits each option offers is a good place to begin.

Ten to fifteen years ago many printed circuit assemblies (PCAs) comprised little more than a through-hole PCB, with wave soldered components. Today, even modest electronic products can involve a bewildering array of surface mount, chip-scale, through-hole and electromechanical technologies. Screen printed solder paste and reflow/wave ovens are no longer sufficient to complete the build alone and this is where bench-top dispensing came into its own.

The list of commonly dispensing fluids in the electronics industry includes: adhesives (anaerobic, cyanoacrylates, epoxy and UV); conformal coatings; flux (liquid and gel); *RTV silicone - Room Temperature Vulcanization (curing without heat); solder mask and solder paste.  These dispensing fluids have vast differences in their properties, in particular their viscosities and typical dispensed volume, hence dispensing valves, dispensing tips/nozzles and controllers have been developed to provide an optimized solution.  Whether securing a tiny surface mount component with a single dot of adhesive, conformal coating an entire assembly or using a formed dispensing tip to ‘draw’ an enclosure gasket, engineers responsible for specifying a dispensing system can rest assured a solution does exist.

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