> Could anyone advise how to measure the machine placement accuracy and > repeatibility for the Pick and Place machine. Hi Poh -- On a CS 3AV, this is how we do this: 1. Get a real of 1210's (decent size for this test and cheap) and cover a board with double stick tape in the area where you'll be placing your test parts. 2. Create a program with known coordinates (something along the lines of: R1 x=1 y=1 Theta=0 Tool=1 R2 x=1.5 y=1.5 Theta=90 Tool=2 R3 x=2 y=2 Theta=180 Tool=1 ...and so on). We place maybe 8-10 parts for each spindle. Choose your fiducial (maybe lower left) as both you "Zero" and your "Skew." This will give a 0 skew angle for calibrating. 3. If you have multiple heads, do one at a time. If you have multiple spindles on a head (we have 2 on each), then do the following to ensure you are calibrating the correct spindle: For a real of 1210's, say you're using a .100 dia tip, and its name is T1. Assign T1 to R1 and T2 to R2 (and so on). T2 can be defined as a .XXX dia tool, but put another .100 tool in its holder (if you're using 1210's, for example). This way, you can control which tip places which part and use the same (one) real of parts. 4. If you have a transfer option (to a conveyor or reflow, for example), disable this, so the finished board remains loaded in the machine (to help reduce the chance of disturbing the placed parts). 5. After you run the program, go back and visually digitize the parts (find their centroid coordinates of the part, where you usually do the pads). 6. Find the differences for each placed part between what you programmed and where it actually placed. 7. Separate the deltas into groups corresponding to each spindle tested. We have a spec of .004 as the widest margin of error (repeatability) and an average of +/- .002 (accuracy). If our deltas were above these values, we would either re-calibrate or adjust the offsets, as necessary, and then re-perform this test. Hope this helps. Tell me if any of this is unclear or does not apply. Regards, Lainie Loveless General Atronics Corp Wyndmoor, PA (215) 242-7336 ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. For the technical support contact Dmitriy Sklyar at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.311 ##############################################################