Pick and Place Toolhead for RepRap Darwin

thingiverse

This new toolhead allows RepRap to manipulate surface mount components. Combining a milling head and solder paste dispenser could automate PCB production, except for soldering non-SMT parts. The vacuum pump creates suction in the blunt tip needle to pick up SMT components, while the gear motor positions them correctly. It was initially designed for RepRap Darwin but may work with Mendel. Materials include 6x20mm M3 cap screws, 3x35mm M3 cap screws, a 10mm M2 screw, an 18gauge blunt tip dispenser needle, a magnetic rotary encoder and retrofitted GM3 gear motor, 1m of 4mm aquarium tubing, and a low vacuum pump (possibly a reversed aquarium air pump). Assembly instructions include connecting pnpdisk2 to the motor drive shaft, inserting aquarium tubing into the blunt tip dispenser needle, attaching pnpdisk1 to pnpdisk2 with 20mm M3 cap screws, securing the magnetic rotary encoder to pnpclamp with 20mm M3 cap screws, affixing the gear motor to clamp with 35mm M3 cap screws, and attaching the clamp to x carriage. More information can be found in this thread: http://dev.forums.reprap.org/read.php?14,15167