Duty: the placement head picks and places components with vacuum nozzles, fed from one or more vacuum lines; component sizes vary widely, so nozzle diameters are changed to suit. Cycle times are short and every pickup needs vacuum established within a fraction of a second.
What the station needs: fast response, small flow and clean exhaust. The pickup area is small, so the flow demand is modest, but the speed at which vacuum builds and the stability of that vacuum matter. Exhaust carrying oil mist would contaminate nozzles, components and any optical inspection station, so oil-free rotary vane pumps are the usual choice.
Configuration direction: count nozzles and simultaneous actions to establish the instantaneous flow, then size the pump from it. For a single machine’s pickup station, a small oil-free rotary vane pump in the V3, V8 or V10 class is enough; multi-head or dual-lane machines step up to V16 and above, or use one pump feeding several lines with a vacuum receiver to damp pressure fluctuation.
Watch points: fit inlet filtration and renew it periodically, so component debris and tape dust never reach the chamber; keep lines short and size the bore to the flow, since pressure loss turns directly into delayed response. Where the pump sits inside the machine, leave room for heat to escape.
This page describes a selection method, not a specific project record.