PCB Remanufacturing Activities

In this chapter, we will present the activities carried out by POLIMI in parallel with various pilot plants to automate the remanufacturing process of certain electronic components and in addition inspection of circuitry. Specifically, the activities related to the testing materials provided by partners of the CIRC-UITS project will be shown, including ECU from Bosch, the in-tire sensor from Continental, the washing machine board from BEKO, and the in-mold electronics from TNO. The basic idea is to explore automated solutions using Key Enabling Technologies such as robotics and machine learning to enable the automation of the task of repairing/remanufacture electronic components from PCB boards. The study aims to shed light on whether it is possible to automate a task currently performed only by highly skilled labor and to highlight the potential limitations or challenges in developing such a solution. In the initial phase of activities, feedback from manufacturers will be gathered to define the disassembly targets for the products under examination. Once the targets are received, we will proceed with selecting the appropriate tools for disassembly, choosing from the precision rework tools for electronics available in the Polimi’s Industry 4.0 Laboratory and considering the development of custom solutions specifically designed for the target components. Manual disassembly tests will then be conducted to evaluate the performance of the selected tools, identify any issues, and define the correct strategies for disassembly. After completing the manual disassembly of the components, they will be sent back to the partners, who will test them to evaluate their functionality. By creating a closed-loop process around disassembly, continuous feedback and bilateral communication will enable the definition of optimal procedures to automate subsequently. In parallel with the disassembly activities, solutions based on machine vision will be studied to identify the desired components. This will allow for greater flexibility in the automated solution, as these algorithms will guide the disassembly process and eliminate the need for reconfiguration for each different layout of PCBs that may contain the same target component.