Much of the focus of pick & place machine supplier development efforts seems to directed towards either: * Head location detection, adjustment, and control. OR * Component location prior to pick-up. OR * Component position error correction after pick-up. Other issues appear to be forced to the back ground, possibly because of the sheer force of interest in getting down with resistors and capacitors.
Having said that, there seems to be little sense in making machines as dumb, as they appear to be made. [Can you spell "machine intelligence"? No, how do you spell � ] Though, I�m not so sure that we have to go so far as the "eagerly fulfilling" thing.
Pausing to think for a moment after opening my BIG mouth, maybe a variety of machine personalities with scripts for this interface would be coo. I not talking printed text on a tube. I�m talking pump-up the volume audio, saying "Listen bone head, if you don�t get me some parts at feeder XX, I gunna stop placing part YY, until I get finished with everything else. You have about ZZ seconds to get me those parts or my efficiency number is going to drop from 8 to 5, and it�s gunna be you that looks bad, not me!!! And don�t try to pass this off as a Purchasing problem, I just checked inventory, the parts are available, and I�ve printed-out a rek for you to sign at the stock area. And if you think I�m taking the rap for your incompetence and worm-like motivation, you�re wrong, buster. Don�t forget that I can make it come-out any way, I want it to come out!!! I�m thinking about e-mailing the production manager, your boss, and your mom telling them just how lame you are, how you should get a pathetic perfrev, and no cookies. Now, get those stubby little legs moving and get me my blanking parts, you sniveling pile of toad excrement!!!" See, the various machine personalities [e.g., accommodating help mate, nasty drill sergeant, sultry whip cream purveyor, whip toting dominatrix, etc.] could be selected by the operator or may be they would just be selected "casually".
Actually, I believe that customers, given the choice [and recognizing limited supplier resources], would rather their suppliers [of popular placement machines ] focus on mechanical, positioning issues, rather that machine intelligence issues. This seems to imply two possible alternate tacks for those desiring a more active machine: 1 Someone shrewd in computer programming could create either a machine intelligent overlay or a replacement machine operating system for an existing placement machine. 2 Someone shrewd in raising money could create an intelligent placement machine.
I too dream about placement machines, but my dreams invariably takes completely different tenor than yours. In my Kafka dreams, the machine usually mutates into some long legged beast with fangs and intents on doing me bodily harm. It also has the capability of firing phosphor tipped pellets at high rates, usually 10,000 pph book and 6,667 pph in actual kill Dave situations.
Strangely, the machine, regardless of its pph, never succeeds in killing me. It often meets its end by careening headlong onto a pot of molten lead tin solder with just a token amount of silver. Although there has been more than a few times that it has avoided the solder pot, leaving no room for complacency.
The machines with heads that move east / west, then north / south are easier to disable than the ones with heads that can move diagonal. Darn scary, no matter how you cut it. Burrr.
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