Madell Pick and Place Machine

Me too - I was wondering because Google has found absolutely nothing. The videos Madell provides on their website and on eBay, are from incredible poor quality that makes it impossible to get an impression of what the machines are exactly doing and how they complete their job. But when I take a more detailed look on the video from the SX1005

-when the machine inspects what it has been placed- it seems that the components are not exactly horizontally aligned...

What confuses me even more, is the sentence they have placed on the bottom of their site: "SMT Equipment Corp (Manufacturing Automation) is not authorized to sell any of our machines and equipment. We are not responsible for any bad transactions or customer financial loss made with them." When you then look on the website from SMT Equipment, it has been made in exactly the same style and colors. I have asked them for closer details about the PX3000-LG and got a manual with screenshots showing me exactly (!) what Madell shows on their site !?!

I have no idea of what machine you're focused on but if it's the lower region, I possibly can drop you a few links from alternative solutions.

But, please... if there's someone who has seen | bought a PnP from Madell - please share your knowledge with us !

I am planning to purchase a PX3202 as it allows 40 reels so I can run many jobs without reel change out (i.e. once we set this up we will have setup change time for our different PCBs)

My options that I need are SX feeders (slower than normal fuji feeders but allow cut tape or reels, and only cost $50 each, so small prototype runs are easy to build )The SX feeders are slower, (but more accurate for this machine) so it will only will place about 2000 parts an hour

Solder dispense (so small prototype runs are easy to build)

5 channel tube feeder (so part tubes are easy)

manual feeder (again so small prototype runs are easy to build)

camera upgrade (allows 0201s to be used)

We are also planning to send one or two people to learn how it works. I understand it is built in CA and we will see the facility when we get the training.

Still working out the cost with them but expect the system to cost is between $16K to $20K in a shipping box and delivered.

(We build a few thousand small boards a month, so not super high volume, yet enough that this seems very cost effective, and it would be very nice to have our products fully built here in the states, where we can control the processes and quality.)

please share your knowledge with us

I have no idea about the sales of these brands but possibly its interesting to look here too...

- px3000 from

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The dispenser must be a volumetric one, otherwise you will have no chance to dispense 0402 or finepitch 20 Mil. Dispensing with just controlling time & pressure will not be able to reproduce the accuracy you need when the solder paste is not 100% fresh.

good luck ;)

Bob (Robot Wars Thumper 1997) schrieb:

SX1005

the machine inspects

please share your knowledge with us

I did call someone who uses the PX3700 on a regular basis. They use it for 10000s of boards and "it works". But it is some trouble to actually set it up, they said. But it works, and the even the dispensing works, and it is not bad. But again, they said it must be setup. In addition, the factory training is absolutely needed because the manual is not good enough. Once it is set up it runs well, but it is important to not change the lighting for the camera stuff to work well.

At > I have no idea about the sales of these brands but possibly its

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ll- please share your knowledge with us

I got my SX1010 exactly 1 week ago, a total disapiontment, not even in my bad dreams I could imagine this is what I will spend $13500. We needed the machine for prototypes and small batches of very simple parts, for this reason we also ordered the dispenser option and nozzle changer.

The thing is, you can call and email these guys 100 times, if you are familiar with SMT machines and you speak about a certain option, you are sure they mean the same but in fact you are getting something completely different. They sent me an oudated pdf file of the 3700 series, claiming it is the same software. I was supposed to get an idea about the SX1010 from it. So in this file you see mechanical parts feeders and full Z control, just 2 examples. What I got is an air actuator Z spring pressure controlled which almost for sure will damage large resistors for example. The feeders.... well, this is the best sad joke i ever seen. I would laugh if it didn't costed $13.5K+shipping, now I cry. It is a Madell's invention, a kind of slot where you place the tape, then pull back the sticker and you attach to it a fishing weight with a probe crocodile. You have to raise the weight every 200-300 parts before it touches the floor. The advance mechanism is another air actuator which presses a headless bolt on the tape and pulls it to expose a new part. What else, before touching the operational facts? The machine looks like the aluminum parts are cut by hand saw, no finish not to mention anodizing. The dispenser control is the same stand alone box sold everywhere on ebay for $100-130 and by Madell at over $340. The air settings were lableled in psi, while the gauges are in MPa. Try set a 5psi on a 0-1 MPa, 1" diameter gauge. Then, when the Z was not moving, they said the 0-5 psi setting is a mistake, it should be 30-50. It took us 3 hours to get this answer, while thinking all the time we do something wrong. The machine vs. computer dispay us up side down, if you want to move X or Y you better sit behind the machine or if you are able to think everything miirorwise then you are ok. The dispalyed units are motor steps, not real dimensions. You have to calculate everything using 1step=1/2000 inch. In their web site and ebay store they claim the SX1010 is delivered with 20 feeders, in fact they offer only 15. I paid ( I don't believe I've done this) extra for another 5 feeders and also ordered 5 "manual feeders". As I described above, there is no difference between the manual and the other (which ar not automatic of course). An important thing with the feeders, if you plan to use anything more than standard passives, you will have a problem with the height, as the slots milled in a piece of aluminum are set at a thickness which is for a minimal tape height. So tantalum caps, leds, and other taller than a 0805 resistor are not feedable, you must use the manual feeder where you have to stand like an idiot and push the parts one by one. Right, they say there is another option, a loose parts tray. They are not exactly loose, the tray should have specific places where the parts are sitting, arranged as a matrix.

They claim the machine is delivered pnp, just add an air compressor and computer and you are ready to place parts. In fact they insisted to supply also a computer without monitor for another $600. I won't spend words on the computer's elemnts and quality, but the hell, why it was supplied with 1/2 ton of viruses in it? I plugged an USB stick in order to copy the user's manual from the machine's computer and when I took it to my desk computer the anti- virus went crazy, their computer infected my USB stick with a dangerous virus. It took several scans to clean all the junk from the machine's disk. About the software, we had to look in all folders to find it and then it was in 2 folders. From one location it worked and passed the homing initialization, from the right folder (according to their instructions it didn't). At this point we also received by email an updated manual, once again for the 3700. Here we discovered for the first time about the feeders, as the other manual had no mention of them. We started to work as described, after 3 days looking to solve the air issues, the right most feeder being unreachable by the pick up head as it was installed by them in a wrong place and other 20 problems with numerous emails back and forth. Once again, we agreed to buy their computer as they claimed this is the only method to supply the machine calibrated. I don't know which calibration it was, but nothing was in place. We are indeed stupid, we try to set everything up according to the manual and nothing works. Why? because most settings in the book are for the 3700. Usually every engineer according to a smart sentence "opens the book only when nothing works" but here we worked according to the book, where on every page you have to set something with the Z height, while the machine has no Z control, simply one tiny subject they forget to mention anywhere. By the way, speaking about documentation, you need a lot of guessing in installing the machine and attaching all connectors and hoses as it is supplied without even a piece of toilet paper showing where everything goes. We spent many hours figuring why the look-up camera isn't working until we found a connector that plugs on it's bottom and you have to disassemble the machine from it's table once again to have it plugged and then it is squeezed between th camera and the table.

About operation, sophisticated windows based software and all the wonderful stories, facto if you have a few pieces to assemble do it with your soldering iron as you do it now, it will be much faster. You have to become a photographer in order to use this machine and set it up, everything goes on snap photos, absolutely everything, home pointer, each feeder with the right part in it, the part above the look-up camera, in every angle, fiducials, each part after assembly if you want the inspection made, you mother in law's photo and etc. Assuming somebody needs it indeed for prototypes, the setup of a 100K parts/hour machine with 300 feeders takes much less. So you might find yourself spending a full day on setup, and god saves you if you need to change a reel with not exactly the same production lot as the first one, you have to take all photo again.

I thought it is the best idea to buy a new machine, the price is tempting when you compare it to other desktop types, now I deeply regret this decision, it was much better to buy an used machine for the same price, where the head knows where each part sits, you can load a pick and place standard file, set the offset and you are ready to go. I did this google search about Madell as well, without any results before I ordered it, I thought that if nobody speaks about it it is also a good thing, as one of the other options, Manncorp is severely criticized everywhere.

I could add $1000 and buy a ECM97 professional used machine or even a Juki in good condition, but somtimes stupidity strikes you. I am considering returning this machine, as I am not in the US the shipping will cost another $1000, they will not refund all the money, the return is at least 15% although I have enough reasons to receive full refund. So it costed me 13,500 + 1000 shipping, if I spend another $1000 to return it and $2025 for cancellation I think we might keep it here and make it a vey high cost dot glue dispenser for securing parts, I see no other use for it.

I share my experience with you, I think such poor product is a shame to manufacture, I saw Chinese machines looking and working 1000 times better.

? 2009?1?23???? UTC

+8??4:14:47?RoboTech???

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