Essemtec’s Cobra Feeder Threads Tapes Quickly

Cobra Feeders provide up to 25% more placement rate on pick-and-place machines. Essemtec, the Swiss manufacturer of production systems for electronics, invented these feeders to fully exploit the performance of the Paraquda and Cobra placement machines. After recent introduction of 8mm double feeders, the range is now expanded with a new feeder for 12mm tapes.

The target for the engineers has been to build a fast, accurate, compact and reliable feeder. This goal has been achieved by improving a drive system well known from the watch industry and implementing it into the Cobra tape feeding system.

One feed takes less than 60ms and the pickup position is reproducible within a few micrometers. The feeders are of such high precision, that the pick-and-place head can pick up four components simultaneously from four different feeders.

Cobra Feeders simplify SMD reel setup by automatically threading tape and cover tape. The integrated tape pull-back system actively prevents jamming, and the cutter shreds tape and cover tape into small pieces. Despite these features, the feeders are highly compact in order to maximize feeder capacity on the pick-and-place machine.

The intelligent feeders can be programmed easily with radio barcode readers. Programming can take place either on the pick-and-place machine or at a remote feeder setup station.

Essemtec will present the new 12mm Cobra Feeder at the upcoming productronica 2011 exhibition in Munich, Germany. Visit Essemtec in hall A3 on booth 358.