Fast 'Cheap' Chinese Pick and Place machines - are they any good ?

[JamesLynton]

'Cheap' Chinese Pick and Place machines - are they any good ?

Seen a little talk going around about the Neoden TM220A, TM240A & TM245P + another company Ying Xing seems to be making remarkably similar machines for less money, namely the CHMT36.

Question is, are they really upto the task & has anyone even seen the Ying Xing machines ? ...Intent on setting up automated production for hobby/small business use & with a claimed  (upto) 7200 part placements per hour, an impressive throughput could be achieved, particularly with multiple machines as they seem to be rather compact compared to the traditional huge booth arrangements.

Neoden:
http://www.neodentech.com/bbx/996360-996360.html
Ying Xing:
http://www.zjyingxing.com/e_products/?big_id=2&m=Pick-Place-Machine.html

This chap got a TM240A:
http://rayshobby.net/new-toy-neoden-tm-240a-automatic-pick-and-place-machine/
Video from above page:


Prices aprox delivered on these machines (to UK) & quick specs on them follow:
Neoden:
TM220a - $4,618usd -   7,000pcs/h - 16   feeder slots - 200x220mm pcb area.
TM240a - $5,780usd -   7,000pcs/h - 28   feeder slots - 400x360mm pcb area.
TM245p - $7,332usd - 10,000pcs/h - 49+ feeder slots - 390x370mm pcb area.
Ying Xing:
CHMT36 - $4,570usd -   7,200pcs/h - 37   feeder slots - 305x350mm pcb area.

TM220a:

TM240a:

TM245p:

CHMT36:


Thoughts ?

[sleemanj]

Head over to the dangerousprototypes.com forum, there's a couple threads there about these.