As I didn't see updates on your web until now, I searched on Taobao for your machine. It is priced at Yuan 29502.00 which translate to USD4700. I believe it is the same machine. Is there any reason for the price differences (international warranty, different quality made for international)?
Yes our machine has some modifications and we do the complete support and documentation. So we need to earn money to do. The only reason why I didn't start is the machine controller and software will be updated for VP-2000D by the manufacturer and we need to test again.
There are some availiable having the oursmt software.
the SMT500D will be availiable next week we update the smallsmt website soon.
Our SMT600 is an extendable machine and will be finished in summer because we redesigned the SMT700 from the ground up to build the machine in Germany for a reasonable price. The X and Y axis are servo motor driven. Every Feeder group has it's own cover tape winder motor. We offer as single or dual head version, up to 60x 8mm exchangeable feeder lines in 6 groups having 10 lines , tray and strip support on the front side and the option to use vibrational feeders too. We have upd to 2 bottom cameras and one top camera for the vision system. It is possible to use up to 90 different components for one job without changing feeders. The placement speed depends on the options and board size and will be between 1000 up to 4000 cph. You can change the complete placement head for service and future updates only disconnect the power and vacuum connectors and unmount form the x axis slider. The maximum board size will be 400x400mm. (north and west side feeders equipped)
The planned price for this machine will be between 5850 and 9980 Euro depending on the setup.
Hey just another question I've been wondering. If I get one of your machines is it reasonably possible to program it for a single board? (verse a panel)
The software support panelizing or different boards in one job no problem. So one easy way is to define the boards in a row and how many columns you use and define the X / Y spacing. After this you can check the position of each board and adjust. Now it is possible to add 2 fiducioals for each board in the panel.
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I was wondering since it has vision which (if I place fiducials correctly) I would imagine it could correct for the individual differences between these one up boards that I purchase.
Yes you can define a set of two fiducials for each board you define in the placement area.
the TVM802A I know before is an interesting product but at this price a SMT50 or SMT500D is maybe better. (more feeder on the machine)
The Novastar is a nice machine but very expensive about 16000USD up (this is a professional solution). I got the information it has only strip feeder no cover tape winder or spool support.
Manncorp is distributing a japanese machine looks good but some details are poor like tape handling.(I think Novastar is better)
If you want to buy now in my opinion the SMT500d gives you the best value for a chinese machine.
Not too much problems because the software is usable and feeder handling is flexible. The pneumatic push feeder and double head design is nice for more placement speed. One problem for SMT50 is the reference switch is done by light barrier and under changing light conditions the zero point moves (the SMT500d improved the light barrier shielding ageinst stray light. I solved for my SMT50 using swiss reference switches for zero point).
For both machines the vision sytem is ok but sometimes not high precision (the problem is all the same on all cheaper vision based machines because a good vision system costs 3000usd only for controller and camera). (sometimes you need to do some manual adjustment on SMT50 vision system) Mostly you receive better results than using neoden TM220 / TM240 or CHMT36 machines. If you use the professional machines like DDM Novastar the vison system is not easy to handle because need adjustment for each part but has better precision.
If you have time please wait for my new SMT600 you will receive a very good solution build in Germany high precision. You will receive exchangeable feeder blocks, servo on X and Y axis, the head is exchangeable too, up to 2 heads and much space on the machine left for trays, vibrational feeders and if you like strip holders too. We will have a nozzle changer soon. We use a PC based controller and vision system based on industrial cameras and extendable software we build.
I hope it helps for your decision. We used several pick and place machines for our production over the past years.
The machine can handle parts in trays or strips but you need additional holder for it. You can define "soft feeders" if you have space in your working area. You only need to set the X/Y position of the first part, the distance to the next part, how many rows and columns are used. The placement process takes care if there are enough parts left. If you fill up the parts you need to reset the soft feeder line.
Sorry we have no vibration feeder for this machine.
The SMT500D supports up to 10mm part height but it is not possible to feed parts higher than 5mm in standard feeder line. Maybe you do a modification to support this. Our Software support individual Z axis pickup positions for every feeder line if you need different heights in Feeder block.
Unfortunally the machine has no automatic nozzle changer it's like TM240A but you can change manual during a placement job.
Hi, no it's a new development not compareable to TM240A. It's not running standalone like TM240A it needs a PC and compressed air. The machine can feed using the push feeder while placing. It has a comfortable vision system to align components.
Here is a placement job I did after good adjustment of TM240A and at maximum possible placement speed. Higher speed setting decrease the accuracy because of resulting vibrations on higher speeds while the axis are moving.
The price I mentioned is for a 60 feeder line complete equipped machine meeting CE and EU machine directive and is made in Germany. The SMT600 is an manufacturing improved design of SMT700 and will have all the features of SMT700 only a different design. I think about the upgrade parts if it is possible to do. We will have a range of different equipped machines for lower prices. But First of all the performance of the high end system must be defined and I asked for the head servos because they are so expensive. I give you an example: All of the Chinese machines use light sensors for the limit switches (having problems with stray light and changing light conditions). But the reference need to be measured very accurate because every position on the machine depends on this. You will get feeder errors or misalignment if there are differences in your reference position. I use expensive swiss limit switches to get a reference position error between +/- 0.01mm.
The pricing for SMT600 isn't fixed depends on configuration and performance!
The SMT500D is at a price of 6800USD for a double head machine having - 300x250mm board size - double head - The machine has 19x 8mm feeder lines and 13 mixed lines or additional 16x 8mm feeder lines. so total 35x 8mm lines as maximum - It uses Samsung CP45 nozzles no changer - 2 pneumatic push feeder to forward the strips independend from the head - Vision system having 2 bottom cameras with different focal length and one head camera for fiducial alignment and teach in programming - user definable pickup positions on the machine working area for parts in strips or TQFP - English PC Software - Internal motion controller USB connection to the PC
First of all we are releasing our new SMT500D in January. It's a Chinese machine having two pick and place heads and pneumatic push feeders. The machine has 20x 8mm feeder lines and 13 mixed lines or additional 16x 8mm feeder lines.
The construction for a new machine "made in Germany goes on" we have a new design called SMT600 because a big 700x700mm machine is to expensive to build in Germany. Our machine has up to 60 exchangeable feeder line in 6 groups having 10x 8mm feeder lines.
Do you think this money should be spend? I like to do a high precision reliable design not too cheap like our Chinese competitors.
The costs for one pick and place head are 580€ But we get a Z axis position information and all error checks possible if the head touches the pcb too hard maybe. We use Samsung CP45 nozzles and try to build a nozzle changer for it. (c) www.smtparts.com It is possible to use 2 heads and servo drives for x and y axis.
The machine price will be above 6500€ please give me your opinion about my design ideas.
1 - Does the supplied software have to run in win xp? Or would win 7 be better? Windows 7 ultimate should be fine XP is ok
2 - I have very limited programming skills so I'm not really able to hack the software, can it be used as is? The software runs at it is but you need some time to learn
3 - I designed our pcb's and boards gerber's in Cadsoft Eagle, can we produce pick and place files that can be used with the SMT50 software? I'm looking at using mountsmd.ulp to generate component place date from Eagle - can I import this data directly to the software or will it need lots of editing before or afterwards?
Tim did an Eagle export script please look on his site
4 - I've had a look at translation files kindly provided on github by timw, do I just replace the relevant .ini files in the software with these and it improves the english translations from chinese?
The files where copied in the language folders and selected in the software no problem!
I'm a little confused about the camera and tray options for the SMT50. Does it come with one camera, and a second (upward-looking) camera is optional? Does it come with one tray and a second tray is optional?
The system has as default two cameras on top and one bottom camera. You can add es second bottom camera having a different focal length ( magnification).
Hi Dan, the software is now running well. The nozzle changer has some tolerance so the accuracy maybe not good enough for 0402 parts. But I need to test. I think the 0402 parts will work but we show a new machine soon which could place 0402 well. We use 2 placement heads using Samsung nozzles and two separate push feeder on each side. Stay tuned.
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