A plate heat exchanger has two metal plates brought into abutment, with a solder material between the plates. The plates are heated up to a first temperature. The plates are placed into a mold, the mold surfaces of which have cavities for envisaged channel structures. Channel structures are formed by local internal pressure forming of at least one plate under pressurization by the tool. The plates are heated up to a second temperature. The plates are solder bonded at the abutted surfaces. A plate heat exchanger has two metal plates, wherein channel structures have been formed in at least one plate and the plates are bonded to one another by soldering away from the channel structures. Eutectic microstructures having a longest extent of less than 50 micrometers are formed in the solder layer.

An apparatus for fabricating an internally finned pressure vessel includes a plurality of positioning discs, each of the positioning discs defining a plurality of circumferentially spaced slots extending radially into the positioning disc from a perimeter thereof, and one or more rods extending through the plurality of positioning discs, the plurality of positioning discs being held in axial alignment by the one or more rods. A method of fabricating the internally finned pressure vessel includes providing the apparatus, loading a plurality of fins into the slots of the positioning discs, inserting the apparatus containing the plurality of fins into a pressure vessel, attaching the plurality of fins to the pressure vessel by a brazing process, and removing the apparatus from the pressure vessel.

A paste dispensing transfer system of a stencil printer is configured to print an assembly material on an electronic substrate. The transfer system includes a paste cartridge mechanism coupled to a print head assembly of the stencil printer, and a rotary indexing mechanism coupled to a frame of the stencil printer. The paste dispensing transfer system is configured to transfer a used paste cartridge from the print head assembly to the rotary indexing mechanism supported by the frame and to transfer a new paste cartridge from the rotary indexing mechanism to the print head assembly.

A stencil printer is configured to print an assembly material on an electronic substrate. The stencil printer includes a frame, a stencil coupled to the frame, a support assembly coupled to the frame, and a print head gantry coupled to the frame. The print head gantry includes an elongate beam that rides along rails provided on the frame and a print head assembly supported by the print head gantry in such a manner that the print head assembly is configured to traverse the stencil during print strokes. The print head assembly includes a print head having a squeegee blade assembly configured to roll solder paste along the stencil. The stencil printer further includes a solder paste bead recovery system configured to remove a bead of solder paste from a top surface of the stencil and to deposit the bead of solder paste onto a new replacement stencil.

A robotic wire termination system for efficiently and accurately connecting a plurality of wires to an electrical connector having a plurality of connector pins with corresponding wire receptacles. The system generally includes a housing, a removable alignment plate, a robotic positioner, a heating device, a touch responsive display, and a control unit. The alignment plate removably holds a selected electrical connector in a specific position and orientation with the connector pins exposed in the housing and the wire receptacles exposed outside. The display provides a visual representation of the connector pins and selections of the connector pins. The control unit receives inputs indicating the pin selections and controls the robotic positioner to sequentially move the heating device along three orthogonal longitudinal axes to a series of heating positions relative to the selected connector pins to provide heat for melting solder to connect wires to the wire receptacles.

Systems and methods for moving a substrate to a vision system using a robot; using the vision system to determine where a braze material is to be applied to the substrate; moving the substrate to a braze dispenser using the robot; applying a braze material to the substrate using the braze dispenser based on the determination from the vision system; and using the vison system to determine whether to apply additional braze to the substrate, including for the substrate of a component for gas turbine engine, such as configured for use in an aircraft.

A bonding apparatus includes a body part; a vacuum hole disposed in the body part; a first protruding part protruding in a first direction from a first surface of the body part; a second protruding part protruding from the first surface of the body part in the first direction and spaced farther apart from a center of the first surface of the body part than the first protruding part in a second direction intersecting with the first direction; and a trench defined by the first surface of the body part and second surfaces of the first protruding part, the second surfaces protruding in the first direction from the first surface of the body part, and the trench being connected to the vacuum hole, wherein the second protruding part protrudes farther from the first surface of the body part in the first direction than the first protruding part.

An embodiment of an apparatus includes means for peripherally welding a cavity-back blade and a cover of the cavity-back blade to form a 3-dimensional hollow blade assembly, and a plurality of bellows contained in one or both of a first die half and a second die half receiving the 3-dimensional hollow blade assembly. The plurality of bellows are disposed within the region defined around or inward of the peripherally welded interface of the cover and the blade. At least a portion of the plurality of bellows are arranged in a manner to provide pressure to the cover at approximately a 90 degree angle to each of a plurality of nodes, each node defined by an intersection of two or more ribs in the cavity-back blade.

An automatic wire arranging device includes a controller, at least one driving device electrically connected with the controller, a first wire clamping jig connected with the at least one driving device, a second wire clamping jig disposed to the first wire clamping jig, at least one charge-coupled device camera connected with the controller, and at least one puncher pin connected with the at least one driving device. The first wire clamping jig opens a plurality of first clamping slots. Each of the plurality of the first clamping slots opens a through-hole. The second wire clamping jig opens a plurality of second clamping slots. The at least one puncher pin is capable of penetrating through the through-hole and pushing against a core wire to be away from one of the plurality of the first clamping slots and be blocked in one of the plurality of the second clamping slots.

A soldering apparatus comprises a soldering mechanism and a management unit. The management unit converts operation history of the soldering mechanism into a numerical value, compares the numerical value to a predetermined threshold value, and generates a notifying signal if the numerical value exceeds the predetermined threshold value. The notifying signal may result in cessation of operation of the soldering mechanism. The notifying signal may result in a visual and/or audio reminder to the operator to inspect or replace a part of the soldering mechanism. With the management unit, the operator need not guess or rely on personal experience to determine when to perform an inspection or replacement. Reliance on personal experience can be error prone and lead to inefficiency. The management unit may reduce the possibility of soldering with a degraded soldering tip or other part, which may have an adverse effect on soldering quality.