Used with permission, as seen in the December, 2001 issue.
Protecting your Feeders Protects Your Business
By Dan Martin, Manix Manufacturing, Inc., Feasterville, PA,
and Jack Leonard, NAMCo, Belmar, NJOkay, so you finally got the job set up on the pick-and-place machine. Now it's time to start the pre-production run to verify that the placement locations are correct and that the components are in the correct feeders on the machine. You press the “run” button and the board moves into the printer, gets a decent print and moves to the placement system. The pasted board moves into the machine, the vision system checks the fiducials and you're off and running. Or so you think.
The first few placements go as planned, but the next feeder jams. You clear the jam
and restart the run. It jams again. Now you go looking for a replacement feeder so you can keep the production running and finish the boards according to the delivery commitment your boss made to the customer.
Does this sound familiar? The single most important, and fragile, part of the board assembly process holds up the entire production run. How many times has this happened to you? The answer is always the same — too often.
Solutions to this problem from the placement companies themselves tend to be costly, large and many times end up with the purchase of additional “off machine” stations. These stations end up consuming valuable floor space and in the end, become a new problem area that demands your attention.
You'd think that someone would come up with a low maintenance way to protect the feeders for a reasonable investment.
Many times a low-tech solution provides a superior fix to a high-tech problem. That's exactly what Manix Manufacturing has done with its line of SMD Feeder Carts.
Feeder carts have been around for many years. At first, they were designed with bells and whistles intended to make it easy to set up the feeders needed for a job offline. The drawbacks were not only the cost but also the complexity of the cart. Each placement vendor offered carts as a tool that could be used only for that vendor's feeders. Once the job was set up on the cart it would be moved to the placement system, connected electrically and mechanically to the machine. The cart was no longer available for feeder storage or job setup because it was in use on the production line. That was very convenient for the supplier because now the user needed to buy more carts!
What was really needed was a method of storing feeders that were not needed for a specific job, and maybe a place to collect and arrange feeders for the next job — a solution that would continue to be available once the placement system was running the job.
Here's where a low-tech solution comes in handy; Manix SMD Feeder Carts do just that. Each is configured specifically for each placement system so that the feeders latch onto the cart, providing static protected safe storage. Since wheels are standard, it allows the cart to be moved — feeders and all — anywhere in the plant with complete safety.
There are many ways a Manix SMD Feeder Cart can increase productivity. One of the most important ways is that they provide a low-cost method of protecting one of the manufacturer's most important physical assets, the tape feeders.
How can it help?
Let's take a look at some of the benefits of using Manix SMD Feeder Carts. The obvious benefits are easy — they protect the feeders from mechanical and electrical (ESD) damage when they're not needed for production. Some of the other ways carts can benefit production are:
Prevent clutter of improperly stored feeders; no more cardboard boxes, leaning towers of feeders, or stationary, hand-made wooden shelves.
Materials kitting where you need it. The cart can be moved to wherever it's needed, and because of its compact size, it becomes possible to reduce the width of aisles, providing more space for production without moving to a larger facility.
Most of the carts can include a storage area for extra component reels and waffle tray packs. Some carts can be configured with an optional loading station to create an all-in-one, movable setup tool. All of the needed items can be moved at once to the production area at the same time.
Reduce machine set-up errors and changeover time. Kitted feeders can be arranged on the cart's shelves in the exact order they need to be loaded onto the placement system. Take the feeder from slot 5 on the cart to slot 5 on the placement system. What could be easier?
Keep all feeder components together. No more lost feeder parts if your placement system uses a two-part feeder. The reel arms are the first to get bent, broken or lost.
Reduce workplace related injuries. Manix SMD Feeder Carts are ergonomically designed for easy access with a low center of gravity, and have locking, conductive casters. All carts include stainless steel shelves in a solid, rugged welded tubular steel framework with a powder-coated finish.
Standard carts are available configured for Fuji, Panasonic, Sanyo, Universal, Siemens, Zevatech/Juki, TDK, Philips/Assemblon, TDK, Quad/Tyco, Intelliplace/Tyco, Casio, Mamiya and Tenryu assemblers. Other models are available as custom orders.
For more information, contact:
Manix Manufacturing, Inc.1650 Loretta Avenue, Feasterville PA 19053
Tel: 215-953-9797; Fax: 215-953-9399
E-mail: sales@manixmfg.com
Web: http://www.manixmfg.com