2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the foundational building blocks of most modern electronic devices. PCB assembly is defined as the process of mounting different electronic components on a PCB. Circuit board assembly utilizes an automated technique with most steps completed by machines for different operations (e.g., pick-and-place components, soldering, etc.). In this paper, details of a student course project, carried out at Old Dominion University, on the design and simulation of PCB assembly processes based on MATLAB discrete-event system are presented. An essential component in the advanced manufacturing technology course is the hands-on experience where students implement multiple software simulation tools including SimEvents, Simulink, and MATLAB for a manufacturing scenario. Students learned the principles of the discrete-event system and how to create a discrete-event simulation model to simulate the passing of entities through a network of queues, servers, gates, and switches based on events to describe flexible manufacturing systems. The proposed SimEvents model consists of five subsystems, which are used to represent a machine for solder printing, two machines for picking and placing electronic components, a machine for reflow soldering, and a machine for X-ray inspection. The simulation processes help the students understand the manufacturing processes of PCB and how productivity can be affected by visualizing the number of parts in queue and number of parts completed in each subsystem with different setups and parameters.