Search for Pick and Place Machine

[Flavio Souza]

Hi,
anyone has any idea of ??Pick and Place machine(not handly!)? A cheapie / simple that you have seen.
We assemble a few prototypes. We work with smd's of all kinds, but spend + -80% of the time with mounting of Capacitor and Resistor, 0603, for example. I emphasize that for our reality, outsourced assembly does not work, lead time, in general, is increased.

Others informations:
.we used tapes, and rarely reels (rolls).
.the search process components on a "dense" PCB is not trivial, although we use a PC for easy the search in the cad file, like Altium. This is rather time consuming therefore configure the xy coordinate of capacitors and resistors do not think it would be wasteful.
.I think of something that caught (pick) in a container the component being assembled and put (place) in PCB without commitment to weld it, with something like adhesive plate, is flow, or anything else.

Thanks for reading.

[casinada]

Flavio,
Check the Dangerous Prototypes website. Ian reviewed the cheapest pick and place in the market and other items useful for in house small batch prototype runs.
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2013/02/28/workshop-video-57-tm220a-pick-and-place-loading-reels-and-stack-setup/

[jeffm]

Hi Flavio,

Another alternative is our Board Forge robot.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/03/11/1731227/sxsw-imagine-a-practical-low-cost-circuit-board-assembly-system-video

Our primary design goals are accuracy, ease of use, and affordability (the machine will be $2000) We are planning to release a pick and place version this summer.

Jeff

[nctnico]

Hi,
anyone has any idea of ??Pick and Place machine(not handly!)? A cheapie / simple that you have seen.
We assemble a few prototypes. We work with smd's of all kinds, but spend + -80% of the time with mounting of Capacitor and Resistor, 0603, for example. I emphasize that for our reality, outsourced assembly does not work, lead time, in general, is increased.

Usually there are some firms around which can do quick assembly. Maybe 2 or 3 weeks lead time. Setting up your own assembly line is very cumbersome and only viable if you can keep it running 8 hours a day. Even then count on at least half a day to change to a different product.

Another way to solve the problem is by being able to work faster by:
- using arrays of components
- using less different values
- making different silk screen borders for different components. On my boards I use rectangles with straight corners for resistors, 4 rounded corners for capacitors and 2 rounded corners for inductors. Here is a picture of one of my boards:

Its a trick I picked up from a quick turn-around assembly workshop. They asked me to change the silkscreen this way so they could place and check the components faster.

@jeffm: cool machine. Too bad the video doesn't show it in action. Or I skipped over it...

[Flavio Souza]

Thank you, guys!

I´m analising this :
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Surface-Mount-System/902044_765762614.html


More cheap! Doesn´t it?

I guess that the devices in tapes too works, besides to use reels. What do you think?

[nctnico]

It doesn't seem very accurate but then again the surface tension does help to align components but it can also cause 'tomb stoning'. IMHO its a gamble. Using a pick&place machine takes some time to learn so its difficult to tell whether this is a good buy or not.

[Harvs]

Another way to solve the problem is by being able to work faster by:
- using arrays of components
- using less different values
- making different silk screen borders for different components. On my boards I use rectangles with straight corners for resistors, 4 rounded corners for capacitors and 2 rounded corners for inductors. Here is a picture of one of my boards:

That's a good tip.  Thanks for that.

[casinada]

Ian found it much cheaper as he shoes on the video. May be you should communicate with him and ask where he got it from. He is in china now setting up shop overt here. 

[Hardcorefs]

I have personally  seen the machine and it is not too bad, the feeders could do with a little work (they are not individually fed)
BUT... (there is always a But)
The attitude of the factory is really quite poor, even I wanted to buy 10, really really rude and that was to my Chinese sales staff.

I would worry about getting support or service once they have sold it to you......