KFTB-Feeder

The increasing use and variety of surface mount ICs supplied in stick/tube packaging format has presented SMT assemblers with a number of new technical and economic challenges. Autotronik Smart Stick Feeders are designed to solve these problems and provide the industry’s most flexible, reliable and cost-effective solution for feeding SMD components in sticks.

The KFTB-2 model can accommodate up to 10 tubes with variable widths, while the KFTB-4 model can accommodate up to 20 tubes. Both models utilize a series of DB-9 interface connectors at their front end and can be easily mounted to the 48-port (FR-48K) or 32-port (FR-32K) Smart Feeder receptacles based on BA Series placement systems.

Smart Stick Feeders can be positioned directly next to the Autotronik Smart Tape Feeders and, like the Tape Feeders, use the interface connection for communication between the BA Control software and the storage modules integrated in the Smart Stick Feeders. The memory modules store unique ID numbers that link the individual tracks of the feeder hardware to assigned feeder position data, component data, belt indexing step sizes and even on/off timing settings for the vibration/gravity feed portion of the feeder.