Can Pneumatics Play a Bigger Role in Mechatronics Designs?

A company I worked for in Utah built a dip coating machine for dipping sheets of very thin copper clad circuit board material in photo resist.

A 24 sheet carrier was rolled into the input bay, which was pinned for proper alignment, and locked in place. The machine would pick one sheet up, move into the dip station, dip it, and then convey it to a rack in the curing oven for cure.

It was really interesting to watch it operate. It wasn't very fast, but by controlling the rate of withdrawal from the dip tank, very precise coating thickness control could be achieved.

Oh dear, now we'll have to make up another unnecessary name "pneumechatronics".