Feb 11 2015: this is version #2 of this design. It can be printed on a standard single extruder printer with no material support.
Project home page: https://github.com/zapta/misc/tree/master/prototyping/smd_feeders
This model is used for manual assembly of electronic SMD components. Glue it to some base, feed in the components' strips, peel the tape, pass it through that little slot and you are done. Pulling the tape up will forward the tape and will provide more components for picking.
Customization is straight forward, select the number of feeders you want, the width of your tape (with minor margin) and that's it. There is also a section with more involved tweaks but leaving the default should work in most cases.
I printed it on my Prusa i3V with no problems using these parameters: Material support off, layer thickness 0.1mm, PLA, Cura slicer. Some cleanup with a sharp knife may be required at the bottom of the print, depending how 'squashed' your first layer is. Playing with the slicer params may improve it. Use the provided first layer test model for quick experimenting with having a clean opening at the bottom.
first_layer_test.stl | 24.4KB | |
smd_feader.scad | 4.3KB | |
smd_feader_10x8mm.stl | 219.1KB | |
smd_feader_5x8mm.stl | 109.4KB | |
smd_feeder_1x8mm.stl | 20.5KB |