SMT pick and place vacuum hand picker

cults3d

Edit: printing the mouthpiece from a soft material such as NinjaFlex or TPU will make it more comfortable to hold. NEW: I've added a model for a standalone pick-and-place tool that doesn't need a vacuum pump. The tube is a flexible silicone aquarium airline from a pet store, and the filter is a universal 1/4" automobile fuel filter (modified to fit the airline). This single-piece design has two versions of a handle for vacuum hand-pickers of electronics SMT components. One version has a release hole and the other doesn't. I'm using the latter with a foot pedal and a 12V pneumatic valve for better release stability. The printed release hole is intentionally small, so you can drill a larger one if you want or just print the no-hole version and drill a hole wherever you need it. The handle is compatible with standard industrial blunt needles (available on eBay) and with standard aquarium air hoses (use silicone hose for better flexibility). The files labeled 'demo' show the internal details, but these are not the ones to print. I printed this design on a Prusa i3V using PLA, 20% infill, 5 top, bottom, and vertical shells in Slic3r for better air tightness and no material support. Air tightness is crucial for proper operation, so test it by holding it underwater with the tip blocked and blowing into the hose. If you still see bubbles through cracks and holes, increase the number of shells, print slower, make sure you don't under-extrude, or fill the holes with glue (apply vacuum to push the glue into the holes). This is a base design, and I hope others will improve on it. For example, forcing air to flow near the release hole to minimize residual vacuum when released, adding a built-in adjustable valve for regulating lifting force, incorporating an air filter or making this thing ESD safe. The source files include an Inkscape .svg file containing the spline contour of the handle, which was exported in DXF format using the BetterDxf extension and is required for proper compilation of the SCAD file.