Hello there!

     The problem with trying to use a CP-3 for 0402's is because of the nozzle
size, your pick-up's have to be dead perfect. If the feeder locating pins on
the device table have been beat-up at all (and they usually are), you won't
have the kind of repeatability you need to have without wasting a ton of
parts...(well, not a TON, but lots...)

     Another problem is that you'll need to replace all your current small
nozzles with special 0402 nozzles, and they only do well with 0402 parts
(unlike the standard 1.3mm small nozzle which can place a variety of different
packages as you probably already know).

     Because the CP-3's nozzles are spring loaded, and the nozzle for 0402's
is so delicate, it doesn't take much force whatsoever to tweek them enough
that they're unusable...just normal operation tweeks the nozzles.

      It's been a while since I've worked with a CP-3, but at the last place I
worked (a contract assembler) where we had CP-3's, we would turn down business
that had 0402's on the boards because we just couldn't get the CP-3 to place
them reliably.

                      -Steve Gregory-

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