Robin's smt Pick and Place build

[hixo]

so how do you generally select the type of picker that must be use?

[Jonathan]

so how do you generally select the type of picker that must be use?

Pick one :whistling:

[Robin Hewitt]

Aim for the largest that you can reliably pick the part with, allow for the worst case resolution on your tape feeder as well as the nozzle placement.

If physically aligning the part on the nozzle you may need to snatch it back when the tapper opens so a good flow rate helps.

OTOH, if you don't have an autochanger you may decide to compromise on a single tool that picks your entire selection of discretes.

Suck it and see

[matt-b2]

Hi Robin,

I too am working on a DIY SMT pick and place machine and I've found your work very inspiring.

Can I ask, where did you source the small linear slide for the Z-axis, the leadscrews and anti-backlash nuts from? Also, what shape Z-axis cam are you using?

Thanks,
Matt.

[Robin Hewitt]

I too am working on a DIY SMT pick and place machine and I've found your work very inspiring.

Blimey, I've been called a lot of things in my time but... Thanks

I got the parts off ebay. The Z cam is an eccentric, miniature ball bearing running on an iron rail. Has to be iron so it can't dent.

I got stalled by an old trap called, "The enemy of a good idea is a better idea". I got a notion that I could put the 8mm tapes really close together and lots of them. It goes like this... Mounted at one end of the X rail is a pin feeder and rubber pad. As the placement head moves over the component to be picked it drops the pin and winds if forwards, drops the pad on the cover tape and moves it back. As the placement head leaves it lifts pin and pad then resets them for next time. I am just waiting for the mechanism to pop into my head.

Good luck with your machine.

Robin

[matt-b2]

Good luck with your machine.

Thanks. Interesting idea re. the tape feeders. I've not put a great deal of thought into feeders yet as I'll probably add them after the rest of the machine is built. So far my very embryonic plan is to actuate each feeder individually with its own low cost DC motor and worm gear drive winding the cover tape over a roller to separate it from the main tape and onto a spool. I'll use some sort of hairpin switch to index the tape via its sprocket holes. I am, of course, hoping that most tapes will cope with being pulled forward via their cover tapes rather than their sprocket holes even though this is not how things are intended to be done.

Matt.