Robin's smt Pick and Place build

[Robin Hewitt]

I've looked at lots of pick'n'place machines and very few people really go for it.

Put down a strip of components and peel it? No, I want full reels of 8mm tape and tubes of SOIC chips.

Change nozzles by hand? You're not really trying, pick them from a rack.

Look at the component from below with a camera then try and estimate where to put it? Sounds like you made it and now you are trying to fix it with clever software. Physical chip alignment on the nozzle for me.

Is it moving? How many components does it place in a week? Some degree of alacrity sounds like a good idea!

The board is stuffed, now how do you get it out without disturbing anything? Shouldn't you have thought about that before you start building it?

What's that ghastly noise? A modified aquarium pump generating the vacuum could drive you insane.

Is that a rubber pick up nozzle? You must have camera alignment because you ain't going to move it! I also have a notion that a pick and place nozzle needs to leak air. Without the leak your pick up force is limited by the nozzle diameter and vacuum pressure. If you let it leak Bernoulli tells us that air forced through a gap will try to close that gap. You can probably do more lifting with a leaky nozzle than with a hermetic seal

Whatever. I am going to have a go at building a 24 station pick and place machine and this is my build log. It's only purpose is to spur me on, a sort of motivator, I think I can rely on you lot to keep me going

First the XY gantry which is peculiarly floppy. There simply isn't enough space to make it rigid because I need access to the table on all 4 sides. The front is for loading pcb's, the back is for the tool rack and the chip alignment station, the left if for tape reels, the right is for chips and more reels. I am depending on 4 screw adjustable feet to keep it square.

First pic: The Y axis runs on two 16mm round rails. Each has it's own 3/4" pitch screw fitted as close to the rail as physically possible.