New to SMT Equipment

If support is a concern, don't forget that any support provided by equipment manufacturers will most likely (certainly with Juki and Universal) require registration of the machines at a cost to you of probably $2k-$5k per machine. Some used equipment brokers provide service as well.

How many parts per month? 50k, 150k, 500k? What technology? Fine pitch, .050" pitch, BGA, lead free?

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Mydata is worth looking at. I think they are a great first machine. And it's best to buy a used one direct from Mydata. They are extremely anal about their used machines and you might not be able to tell it's a used machine, it will be refurbed so well.

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Don't forget repairing the boards all the special tips for the small parts sounds like you might be placing BGA may need a special machine just for reparing that. some places think they need x-ray for inspecting BGA. type of paste that you going to use. stencil makers. stencil claners. you might have a moisture sencative part so you might want a bag sealer or dry cabinet. feeder storage racks. might want to think about profiling your oven will you use on machine system or buy like a slimkik profiler system. we have universal advantis pick and place machines so far so good have had the nachines for about a year, 2 shifts 5 days a week. universal seem to have great service and quick parts delivery and made in the U.S.A. good luck

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For the most part there would not be a lot of change over. There are two primary boards at this time that would be run on the line that also use common components. At this point all but a couple of the pick and place machines we have looked at have the capability to load all the feeders needed for both of these boards and leave them setup. Right now between these two boards there is about 50 components total used that would require a feeder. Of course as we add more boards there will be more change over but we try to utilize common components as much as possible. For the foreseeable future the feeder setup would most likely be done by the operator.

The boards are a mix of surface mount and through hole so that is definitely a consideration so there is not a backlog on the through hole end. We are also looking at adding a wave or selective solder but our primary focus at this time is the SMT time. We have been an OEM for 30 years and still sell boards that were designed in the mid '80s so through hole production will be a facture we have to consider for a while to come. Over time we will redesign some of these older boards to add more capability and convert to SMT but there are a number of them and most of these have low volumes so it's not going to be a priority.

I have heard great things about Fuji equipment and will definitely take a look at them. At this point we have not focused at all on them simply due to the fact that one has not been presented to us yet but I will look around.

Currently our boards that will be run on the line are within 3.5� x 4.5� size (components on both sides) but we would most likely look at panelizing them. The few other surface mount boards that we would run from time to time are small modules that are panelized and roughly 8.5� x 11� in size.

At this point we have avoided designing in BGA components for the exact reason mentioned, rework issues and costs. The primary reason we are even considering BGA at this time is one of the manufactures that we use is moving away from the QFP package and only offering BGA in their next rev. Of course we could go with another manufacturer but we like their offerings and most likely will have to do BGA at some point anyway.

Thank you everyone for your input, it definitely help.

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I'll put a vote on MyData, but you might have problems with the volume... If you're buying used on this better off buying from MyData, they have a tendency to buy up the decent stuff off the used market, and anything left noone really wants to deal with. UIC is a good choice as well, and not too difficult to deal with on used machines.

On your printer, I would stay away from a 260! Hard to say exactly what you're getting (There were 3 basic configurations, 2 control systems, and at least 3 vision systems) and most are unsupportable on parts. If you're going with a Semi-auto (questionable with your volumes), look for a 248 (CE, the earlier version). But would think you would want full auto and be thinking about a DEK 265 GS / GSX / LT or a first generation Horizon. MPM AP25 / 27 would also be a good direction.

http://www.dekhead.com

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