Building A Pick And Place With 3D Printed Parts

For the last few months, [HeliumFrog] has been building a SCARA bot to serve as the basis for a pick and place machine. Somewhat amazingly, this is the first robot of its kind to be printed on a 3D printer.

A SCARA-type robot is an articulated arm perfectly suited for transferring components from tubes and reels to a PCB. [HeliumFrog] began his build with an arm with large gears in joints driven by stepper motors and toothed belts. The Z axis was originally driven with a lead screw, but after a thoughtful redesign that was changed over to another toothed belt.

We’ve seen our share of DIY pick and place machines, but most of those have been based on a traditional X/Y Cartesian frame. [HeliumFrog]’s SCARA bot should be – theoretically, at least – faster and more accurate while taking up a smaller footprint in the workshop.

[HeliumFrog] is more or less done with the basics of his build, and is now moving on to building a plastic extrusion tool head for his SCARA bot. Very cool, and should make this robot capable of self-reproduction for under £400 (~$600).

You can check out a video of this articulated arm bot after the break.

Thanks, [Kyle] for sending this one in.


[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cquw7dvR80A&w=470]

9 thoughts on “Building A Pick And Place With 3D Printed Parts

  1. If HeliumFrog can pull this and get the accuracy required I’ll be very impressed. With some of today’s fine pitched I can’t imagine how it can be done without the tight tolerances of machined parts.

  2. impressive!

    On a side note, does annyone know the software he is using for the assembly drawings?

    (still hoping to stumble upon a great freeware mechanical assembly tool), found NaroCAD and FreeCad so far, doenst seem to handle assembly’s (haven’t looked real close tho)

  3. Great build!

    Why do you think that this type of robot is “perfectly suited for transferring components from tubes and reels to a PCB”, as say compared to the traditional x/y positioning?

    Also, re precision the proof is in the pudding. I didn’t see anything in the article that qualifies this more for repeatable precise positioning than any other 3D printer, plotter or CNC project.

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