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Market Opportunity

Existing CNC products for PCB prototyping are expensive. The cheapest tools for drilling are manually operated hand drills and dedicated power PCB drills. They are cheap, but they have the following disadvantages:

Disadvantages of Manual Drilling

· Prone to human error in positioning

· Accuracy and Repeatability depends on skill of user

· Slow to drill and reposition

· Unproductive for PCBs with hundreds of holes

Advantages of Manual Drilling

· Relatively cheap

· Cost effective for PCBs with low hole count

· Relative portability

· Wide range of products available

· Benefits of human control (adaptable, flexible, intelligent)

 

There is an opportunity in the market for a computer-controlled drill that is cost effective for smaller runs of PCBs. The cheapest non-dedicated CNC product found cost over £550, and the cheapest dedicated CNC PCB drill cost from £8200 (see benchmarking for more information on competitors later in this chapter)

The 'Desktop CNC drill' is aimed at anyone with CAD facilities who wishes to produces short runs of PCBs, specifically those who wish to produce circuit boards with many holes, or several copies of the same board design. Such cases would involve tedious manual drilling, and a CNC solution would be ideal. At present there is no low cost CNC drilling solution available to customers.

Advantages of CNC over Manual Drilling

· Quick

· Increased accuracy

· Increased repeatability

· Doesn't get bored or make mistakes

· Increases productivity

· Increased flexibility

· Reduced risk of drill bit breakages

 

Disadvantages of CNC Drilling

· Higher investment required

· Initial software learning curve

· Machine error/failure factor introduced

· Requires a controller e.g. PC

 

The primary function of the CNC drill is for PCB prototyping, but it will also be capable of drilling holes in sheet materials up to a thickness of 3mm, once they have a similar hardness and density to that of epoxy/glass fibre PCB.

Product Placement

There are already sophisticated CNC machines available for commercial PCB production, and high end PCB prototyping machines capable of milling tracks and drilling holes. However, the cost of such machines makes them prohibitive for smaller development operations, or those wishing to introduce themselves to CNC. The Desktop CNC drill is not intended to compete in the high end/production market. The following are the type of customers that the drill is aimed:

· Developers of electronic circuits seeking cheaper CNC prototyping tools

· The electronics hobbyist

· Home workshops desiring CNC drill capability

· Small scale PCB prototyping operations

· Model engineering enthusiasts

· Anyone wishing to produce PCBs (students, educational, etc..)

 

Customer Requirements

In order for the CNC drill to satisfy the customer, it must meet their requirements, provide the features that they want in an accessible format. The drill should incorporate all the benefits of cheaper means of drilling, e.g. the flexibility of hand drilling, and also incorporate ideas used in high end machines, scaling them to a more economical solution.

The following is a list of customer requirements generated through market research into existing products, and through contact with people who produce PCBs:

· Takes up small amount of space

· Reasonably quick operation

· Accurate drilling

· Easy to use

· Easy to control hole positioning

· Allow for easy removal of piece part

· Minimum maintenance, little mess

· Allows for large PCBs

· Low noise

· Easy to clear away swarf and debris

· Flexible

Product Aims

The product aims to:-

· bring CNC to the desktop of the CAD workstation/PC

· to minimise the time between computer model and prototype

· to enable real world trials and testing of a design before it is finalised

· reduce time to try a wider range of design options

· minimise time for real world implementation of prototype design changes

Benchmarking of Existing Products

There are quite a few drills that can be used for PCB work, and they can be categorised as follows:

Manual Drilling Products

Dedicated hand held PCB drills (e.g. Reliant)
DIY drills with small chucks (e.g. smaller Black and Deckers)
Multi purpose drills (e.g. Dremel)

CNC Drilling Products

CNC milling machines (e.g. EMCO)
Quickcircuit Prototyping System (dedicated PCB prototyping system)

As there is no commercially available product in direct competition, a sample of products with prices relatively close to the Desktop CNC Drill has been examined. This rules out the most expensive production level machines. The purpose of this benchmark is to compare features and performance against price. This will make clear what kind of features and rmance is required in order to be competitive in the marketplace.

Table 2.1 - Performance benchmark of existing products

Features of Desktop CNC Drill

Every part and feature of the drill should directly meet a customer requirement, meet the needs of the specification, meet manufacturing and assembly considerations, and be as cost effective as possible. The following is a table of customer requirements together with the feature of the drill that meets those requirements.

Customer Requirements	Feature of Drill (for more details on features, see the PDS)
Cost effective	Low price, good performance
Takes up small amount of space	Small footprint
Reasonably quick operation	Faster than manual, 30 holes per min
Accurate drilling	Accuracy and Repeatability +/-0.1mm
Easy to use	Graphical software, on-line help and diagnostics
Easy to control hole positioning	CAD file controls hole position
Allow for easy removal of piece part	Quick hold/release mechanism
Minimum maintenance	No maintenance
Allows for large PCBs	Max PCB size of 150x150mm
Low noise	Conform to Blue Angel
Easy to clear away swarf and debris	Swarf tray to catch debris
Flexible	Removable drill head, with mounting plate for other tools, e.g. pen, engraver etc.

Table 2.2 - Customer requirements of a CNC PCB drill.

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