programming automatic assembly machines

[chenx]

hi!
I would like to know the most quick process for programming automatic assembly machines (for pcb).
What does a machine need? coordinates of each pin, centre position of smd component....
Can i make a useful report for use in an assembly machine with the CASTAR 5 or PCAD?
The report depends on the machine or there is a standard report?

Any info about it will be good! THANKS

 

[Vicent Yang]

You will need the cad file generated from your PCB tool for component position. Also you must spend some time in reading your machine manual becasue there will be a difference between the different manfacturers.

 

[cyberrat]

Look into GC-Place V4.12 for this
From whoever did the panelisation of your PCB panel, get data back of the whole panel as this will be more accurate than Cadstar etc.

From the panel, extract the pads to a single layer, then from that you can auto scan for components, turn them into parts & create the P&P data.
The whole process can be done in 20 mins.

Cadstar can create a report with x/y & rotations etc, but the rotation relates to the orientation of the component when created & has nothing to do with the orientation of the component on the machine, which is what the machine needs to know.

As said, reading the manual for the machine will tell you what format its info needs to be in.



, it will take your Gerber data

 

[Frosty]

Most placement machines have external software to process your data. As a minimum you will need x, y, rotation, side, part number.

What needs to be done for the placement machine is to map the customer part number to the placement machines library parts so it can know which vision correction model to use.

Placement machines store their own model libraries for footprints which are most likeley never the same as the user part number. If you work closely with the CEM you use, they can perhaps supply the information for you.

Pads will generate a placement file directly for most machines, PCAD will generate a placement report. Most other PCB packages will need their output files to be pre-processed before loading to the placement machines, as most need a special formatted file to use.