A few days ago on the local morning net I talked a little about a collaborative project I am just starting to work on with a former work colleague, a pick and place system for installing SMD components on circuit boards.
A couple of folks were curious as what I was talking about and I ran across this video of a simple home brew pick and place, (PNP), machine that is a good example and can visually explain it much better than I can over the air.
The smaller components, (resistors, capacitors, diodes etc.), are purchased on tape feeder reels seen in the foreground. The machine has 2 vacuum heads that pick the components off the tape, pass it over a heat source to activate adhesive and then installs them on a circuit board which already has solder paste that has been mask screened on to the pads.
The larger components such as integrated circuits are fed from tray carriers that are set at specific locations on the bed itself. Once all of the components have been installed the solder gets flowed in an oven or hot plate reflow station.
I've been wanting to work on this project for a while but I didn't think I would ever be producing enough boards for projects that would warrant it taking up shop space. The other issue is that it needs to have a clean operating environment which would mean constructing a room for it to live in my dusty shop. Luckily my friend Carl has an electronics engineering lab setup not too far from me and is also interested in putting together a system, so we are in the planning stages of doing so. Hopefully it will come to fruition.
What makes this all possible at the "hacker" level is the openpnp open source pick and place project which is now at a fairly highly developed stage. https://openpnp.org/
My first thought was...beer? maybe wine?...this is much more fascinating and non-fattening! Thanks Chris.