Progress towards an “indexed gang drill” automated drill machine for grid beam:
Recap:
Our prototype machine can drill to an accuracy of 50 microns. Getting it to this stage was much more work than anticipated - we needed to replace the microcontroller, make custom parts and add many safety features. We discovered flaws in this design that mean it will never be reliable enough for mass production, so it’s back to the drawing board…
The next iteration of the machine will use custom engineered parts and be able to drill 60 holes in one movement. The reduction in complexity should save us a lot of future headaches. If that is successful we will work on panel drilling, automated clamping and loading.
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