Demand for DIY Pick 'n Place machine?

[Andrew Burns]

Hey all, I was wondering recently if there would be demand for a hobbyist/garage industry level electronic component pick and place machine along the same line as there has been for 3D printers. What features do you think would be important and at what price point?

Mechanically the accuracy requirements are higher than in the cheaper 3D printers (depending on the size of the components to be placed) but the motion is generally quite simple (straight point to point, no need for interpolation).

I'm imagining it could be a useful machine for people, small start-up companies and hackerspaces who want to manufacture small runs of products (say 25 or 50 boards), any less and they could be hand soldered.

What do you guys think?

Cheers
Andrew

[ivanjh]

I was very interested in this too, but it's a very, very small niche.

I guess like 3D printing, do you want to spend your time learning to build & tweak a PnP machine, or do you want to place parts? If you've got 50 boards to make... you've probably got better things do to.

I'm interested in the exercise... but I have a "no new projects" policy at the moment. ;-)

Link dump:

http://vpapanik.blogspot.gr/2012/11/low-budget-manual-pick-place.html

http://dangerousprototypes.com/2013/02/21/workshop-video-56-tm220a-table-top-pick-and-place-overview/

http://groups.google.com/group/openpnp

http://openpnp.github.io/openpnp/

[Kean Maizels]

Yes, this is on my to-do list.  My thought was to build a unit that mounted on my 6040 CNC, and had various computer controlled feeders (maybe through Gcode commands) – plus the appropriate vacuum pickup.  Paste or glue dispensing could be nice.  Hadn’t decided if vision was a requirement or not.

 

The reality is that I’m waiting for something I can just buy (for a reasonable price) and start using...

 

Kean

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[Nick Johnson]

Remind me why I left Sydney again? ;)

-Nick

[ada]

On May 2, 8:26 am, Andrew Burns <burns.and...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey all, I was wondering recently if there would be demand for a
> hobbyist/garage industry level electronic component pick and place machine
> along the same line as there has been for 3D printers.

No.

> I'm imagining it could be a useful machine for people, small start-up
> companies and hackerspaces who want to manufacture small runs of products
> (say 25 or 50 boards), any less and they could be hand soldered.

Market for small run production machines is much less than market for
prototyping devices like 3D printers.