Pick & Place Machine Longevity

A Mercedes might have a few more toys in the dash, but both of them these days leave most of the engine management and diagnostics in the hands of an ECU or two. Of course spares for one are notoriously expensive, because they can. In both cases you can buy grey market spares if you want to take your life into your hands.

I'd have a guess the answer is probably a Juki, but not models descended from Sony machines, just the simpler/cheaper ones. In some respects Juki appear to have chosen to keep their machines simpler than some others. Having said that for low volumes Autotronik machines might also fit the bill, cheap, get the job done, low feature set....

However analogies with cars are difficult & swiftly run their out of gas.

There are only really a handful of Pick & Place machine makers left, in recent years they have all merged to better tackle the challenges the rapid growth of consumer electronics has thrown at them. They are by necessity expensive machines full of bespoke parts, unlike cars a manufacturer cannot rely on an output of millions of units to share parts across multiple models.

To keep those machines in tip top shape they need to be serviced properly and that will include using the correct lubricants and cleaners in the correct places and adjustments will have to be made as the machine ages to keep it operating accurately. A large business might well have the resources to buy all the calibration & service equipment and train someone in all aspects of servicing. A small business might not be able to justify that, however what that service costs will vary between manufacturers.

On our Essemtec machine, in house maintenance essentially boils down to keeping it clean, maybe changing a filter etc. The regional Essemtec trained engineer will come and service it when required, they don't pester me if I have it done less regularly than recommended. I do know Essemtec are not keen on training end users to do the full service although quite a lot of what the engineer does is in the manual if I wanted to take the head to bits myself for example. However quite why I would want to assign myself that responsibility on a mission critical piece of equipment is beyond me. Pay someone else, and if it goes horribly wrong, its their fault & their problem. This Essemtec service is nothing more than that, a service including some routine maintenance, calibration and anything else you might want them to do in the allocated time, it costs <$1500.

Machines for larger installations from other manufacturers might well have larger fees but they are also for a different service. These services often include a guarantee to get you a spare part overnight. 24 hours phone/remote support a scheduled service and x floating days for callouts. When compared to the ROI these machines have, these charges are not that expensive and you should be able to negotiate your own service level if you feel what they are offering is excessive to your needs.

I can tell you an OEM with exactly the same machine as us calculated that bringing production in house meant the line they installed to do it, paid for itself in under 18 months. When a machine is that valuable why on earth would you begrudge spending 3-5% of its headline cost making sure it keeps saving you that money?

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Actually the newer pick and place machines are much less complex as far as mechanics, and wiring. The software however is much more complex output wise, but way easier to use.

I have been working with SMT equipment going on 3 decades. To answer your question, I have never seen an instance where you do not need manufacturer support. Even Maytag's break occasionally.

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If you are a good mechanic they are all Toyotas. Pick one that has at least free phone support. Take all the necessary training or include them in your machine deal. I had UIC, Juki, Fuji, Siemens, Mydata ....and some other European brands. All of them great machines, if you know what you are doing. I personally never used any of the maintenance contracts and kept them going myself.

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We have Samsung/Hanwha little to no maintenance. we are in the USA and they do not charge $5000 as a yearly maintenance fee. our machines came with a 2 year warranty covered just about everything. You can pay for an extended warranty which we do not do. Very little ever breaks on them so we do not worry about it.

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Hi sir,

Generally speaking, the complexity of the machine is proportional to the price and efficiency. SMT is a kind of precise instrument, which is the most expensive and the most technical in the SMT industry. So do you need a simpler small mounter? You can choose our Yushuli brand.

email:s1@hk-yush.com Peter Chen

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