Manual PNP - Design and Choice of the Vacuum Head

[Jeff Sprenger (xemjeff)]

I have built a manual XY table, and have mounted a USB camera (photo includes here).

Next is to figure out how to create the Vacuum head to pickup the SMT components and place them on the board.  I have built many boards by hand, but the high density QFNs require a steadier hand that I've got.

Can someone in this group recommend a design for the vacuum head with apppropriate nozzles (Juki?) and spring loaded ability to move vertically.  I don't need to use a servo for the Z direction, and am already moving in XY manually.

Thanks for any help or guidance you can provide.

Jeff



Photo:  shows a small PCB,  camera mount, XY axes, and a 7" display for the camera.
And some light that will be replaced by COB led strips. The M12 USB cam has a 16mm lens so that I don't have to be right on top of the board to see some detail.

[JW]

In addition to my large machine, I have a small manual machine very similar to yours which I no longer used since building my 'proper' machine.

Perhaps this will give you some inspiration - vacuum is switched on/off by a solenoid vacuum valve, controlled by a foot pedal. Nozzle tips are the same Juki 50x series commonly used on OpenPnP machine builds. The part that makes it really useable is having the folded steel hand rest so avoid knocking parts off the board. I used it without vision for several thousand 0402 and other parts.

Here's an image - if you want something quickly, I've still got the parts and would happily sell them on...

[JW]

Z is on a small linear rail, with return spring. The 2 black knobs are just to hold/lift/lower the head. The blue line is the vacuum hose that goes down the drag chain. I still have the drag chains/mounting channel for the drag chain etc. The gantry is a 30x60 aluminium extrusion.

[JW]

Also have left over the vacuum tanks I built for it, the vacuum pump, and a custom controller that controls the pump, senses vacuum, and switches the tip vacuum valve on/off... well, everything really - other than the XY linear rails which got recycled into another project, but I can point you at exactly which rails/carriages all the Z head hardware is designed for.

[JW]

Let me know if you're interested, and I can email you a bunch of photos - many details are not in the 3D model images, such as all the air connections between the vacuum tanks etc. The tanks were a very welcome addition, as the pump only has to run every now and then, rather on each pick/place.

[Jeff Sprenger]

Hi Julian,

Thanks for sending the renders of the head and hand rests, and the tanks (cool idea).
Looks like a nice design.

My challenge will be to integrate the camera, which stands above and to the side of the head.

> Also have left over the vacuum tanks I built for it, the vacuum pump, and a custom controller that controls the pump, senses vacuum, and switches the tip vacuum valve on/off... well, everything really - other than the XY linear rails which got recycled into another project, but I can point you at exactly which rails/carriages all the Z head hardware is designed for.

Yes, I'm interested. Let me know what you can share/sell. I'm located in the northeastern US.

-Jeff-

On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 10:15 PM JW <julian...@gmail.com> wrote:

Let me know if you're interested, and I can email you a bunch of photos - many details are not in the 3D model images, such as all the air connections between the vacuum tanks etc. The tanks were a very welcome addition, as the pump only has to run every now and then, rather on each pick/place.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OpenPnP" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to openpnp+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openpnp/3bca0bc1-88e3-49aa-b117-63f01c5711fan%40googlegroups.com.

[JW]

Hi Jeff, sorry - took me a while to notice your reply. I'll send you a direct reply.