A Radical Change in Benchtop Pick and Place Technology
Key to the FVX benchtop pick and place performance is an alignment intelligence algorithm that quickly and accurately examines a picture of any surface mount part and identifies its placement center without the need for complex setup parameters or reference images. What's more, the FVX includes a wide variety of feeder and component presentation options that are specifically designed for users building prototype or pilot production quantities of product, subject to multiple manufacturing revs, short timetables and tight budgets, with low inventories of components and no margin for error or waste.
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Sliding PCB Holder
In a matter of seconds, PCBs up to 310 mm x 390 mm (12.2" x 15.35") are inserted securely into a convenient loading/unloading fixture that includes easily adjustable rails and universal magnetic board supports. The fixture is then slid into the FVX's work envelope where the head-mounted camera and FVX Alignment Intelligence software perform transformation of all X, Y, and θ-axis coordinates using intelligent fiducial alignment to ensure extreme placement accuracy. At this point, assembly commences; there is no need for the operator to open the safety covers and reach awkwardly over feeders and reels of components into the work area. When assembly is complete, the operator simply slides the fixture out of the system and lifts the freshly populated PCB safely and easily from the board holder.
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Single-Part Indexing Tape & Reel Feeders
The FVX system can be outfitted with one air-actuated automatic tape feeder base, mounted on the left side of the system, to accept up to a maximum of 27 single-index, 8 mm tape & reel feeders. Individual 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, and 44 mm tape feeders can be purchased to meet the component usage requirements of each application. Depending on their widths, 12 mm tape feeders and larger will occupy two or more lanes of the automatic tape feeder base. 8 mm tape feeders are available for both standard 4 mm indexing, as well as 2 mm indexing for 0201 chip components.
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Automatic Cut Strip Tape Feeders
While tape-and-reel is the predominant packaging method for SMDs, it can also create inventory and kitting nightmares when it comes to low-volume surface mount assembly. Expensive components may also be lost in the process of loading full or partial reels into automatic tape feeders if not enough leader tape is available. Manncorp's exclusive Automatic Cut Strip Tape Feeders allow varying lengths of tape to be cut from reels and easily presented for pickup, eliminating component waste and simplifying kitting in applications where component use is low. The FVX system can also be outfitted with a Cut Strip Base mounted on the right side of the system, that can hold up to six Automatic Cut Strip Tape Feeder Cassettes for a maximum capacity of 30 strips of 8 mm tape. Three types of cassettes are available; a 5-lane 8 mm cassette, a 4-lane 12 mm cassette, and a 5-lane, multi-width cassette that holds 2 lanes of 12 mm tape, 2 lanes of 16 mm tape, and 1 lane of 24 mm tape. The cassettes present a short section of each tape to the pickup head, and for each subsequent pickup the head indexes the pocket pitch distance, until that section of tape is empty. As components are needed, an actuator on the head mechanism indexes the tapes a programmable distance, exposing the desired number of tape pockets to the pickup head.
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IC Tray/Cut Strip Holder
The FVX software is so easy to use that small cut strips of taped SMDs can simply be set on any flat surface and held in place with double-sided tape for pickup. Strip locations for low-usage components can be taught in seconds using the first and last pocket locations. IC trays are just as easy to teach.
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Multi-Lane Stick/Tube Feeders
Multi-lane vibratory stick/tube feeders attach to the standard 27-lane automatic feeder bases and accept multiple sticks/tubes of various widths (capacity/number of tubes is a function of tube width). To conserve tape feeder capacity, they can also be mounted on the rear side of the system.
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FVX Main Board
The FVX development team believed that most off-the-shelf vision processing systems and algorithms were far too complex, light sensitive, and expensive for use in most pick and place applications. For this reason, from the very start the goal was to create a "parameter-less" alignment system that uses no reference images, is fail-safe, and is very easy to use. Once the decision was made to develop a new "alignment intelligence" system, along with the microprocessor and control software to accompany it, the integration of multi-camera video switching, X-Y-Z axis motor drivers, and all other pick and place machine functions onto a main board was a foregone conclusion. Production versions of the FVX Main Board with vision processor and modular motor control boards (shown at left), are all built with the FVX Bench Top Pick and Place System.
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FVX Alignment Intelligence Algorithm
The FVX Alignment Intelligence algorithm quickly and accurately examines a picture of any surface mount part and identifies its X-Y offset and angular error. The algorithm requires no setup parameters and can identify and align any object on any reasonably consistent background. No reference images are required and no special lighting characteristics are required. In fact, this system is very tolerant of ambient light changes. Alignment speeds are fast...benchmark test images on a 720x480 image typically take 350ms on a dual core computer running Windows 7. Such high speed also allows for precise image stitching and automatic correction of radial distortion from the bottom vision camera when aligning large BGAs up to 40 x 40 mm and high pin-count QFPs with 0.4 mm lead pitch. Most importantly, the FVX algorithm significantly simplifies user setup and interaction with machine vision processing, yielding extremely high reliability and repeatable results.
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Streamlined Application Software and User Interface
The FVX Pick and Place and Alignment Intelligence™ software is a highly efficient, stand-alone application with a memory consumption of only 17 MB, even during vision processing. With fully multi-threaded implementation for optimal user response and speed, the FVX software will run on any dual-core PC or laptop (running Windows™ XP or later) with two USB connections (one for communication with the FVX and one for video). There are no other dependencies or .dll files, essentially making the software "crash-proof." The user interface has been designed for extreme ease-of-use with a very short learning curve. Component and feeder libraries are easily edited and integrated with PCB assembly/coordinate data, and optimized build lists are generated automatically for each project.
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