LitePlacer.com forums

When we are picking up components (such as 0805 ferrite beads) they are staying attached to the nozzle tip when they should be placed. The vacuum pump and solenoid valve will release and even with no air pressure holding the component on it will stay. We have tried blowing ionized air directly over the stuck component and even then it doesn't always get the component to release. We are only running test jobs so we are not ready to use any paste to help the components stick to the board yet. We have also tried attaching an aquarium pump to the solenoid valve but are still troubleshooting it having too much pressure.

Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you!

On my test "boards" (laser printed images of boards, actually), I use spray on post-it type glue to simulate paste stickiness.

Okay that definitely sounds like something we can try, thank you!

Would you send me the information on the product your using so we my try it?

I’ll look it up when I’m in my lab next time. It was just something I grabbed from a local office supplies store.

Thank you!

Do you think the cause of this problem could be solved another way, maybe it is a static problem and I can do something to ground the machine better or something? I am worried about contaminating the components for other boards if I do get this product on them.

The product I have is "3M Spray Mount". there is a number 520 on the can which may or may not be a 3M part number.

You can measure if it is static. If you have a ground connection to the Z bar, you should be fine. Although the v-wheels are isolating, it is not a big deal to add ground connections to the moving parts. I use the shield on the motor cables for that.

My guess is that it is magnetism. Likely, the nozzles are magnetized by the holder. Although there is no direct connection to the magnets, there could well be some magnetization on a nozzle. A small component with lot of iron in it (like a ferrite bead), it doesn't need much pull to lift up.