Quote Originally Posted by Mariss Freimani
You'll probably hate me for this but I have to say it.

My point is this. Don't even consider making a machine that can't place a part every second and a half. If it can, have the parts land someplace near the pads. If it's even close, solder surface tension will take it the rest of the way.

Second, don't bother unless you have thought the problem all the way through. That means laser parts measuring and how to deal with a lot of parts feeders. Without that it's a non-starter.

I told you you would hate me for this.

Mariss
No hate... Nice advice is always good to hear...

I am making about 25 boards mostly every day with 2 people working on them using hand held vacuum pickup needles and with components in small trays already out of the tapes.. And it works !!

I guess that my needs for a pick and place machine and Ciccio needs are not for a fast machine or one that can handle big varieties of sizes and shapes but just something that can automate a tedious and erro prone process.

I am planning on no parts fedder at the "first phase" of the machine !! I will just cut the tapes to the right size and put them in a support over the table. I am planning on just using it for 0805 passives and SOT-23. All other sizes will be hand placed. 1 part every 3 seconds is enough for me to equal what I have in hand placement today.. And I guess that Ciccio requirements are similar to mine..

If we keep it simple I really believe it is quite doable. If we loose track and try to make a complex machine we will just not be able to accomplish it or will end up with a cost that is the same as a commercial machine.

In this way IMHO, we can keep the parts fedder out and just use the tape cut by hand and put inside a "container rail". This rail can be quite easily done with a mill or even with small pieces of plastic glued together.

The pick-up head is a simple mechanism with a hypodermic needle that can be rotated and makes contact with the parts. No need for pushing the components out at low speeds. The solder paste surface tension is enough to pull the component from the needle. When placing bu hand we do not even take the vaccum out !!

If kept simple we can get it to be a simple XY gantry with a little more complicated Z and rotation axis. It will work slowly and with low precision but it is still much better than doing it by hand.

Best regards,
Alexandre Guimaraes