SwitchAir Metal Domes

SWITCHAIR® APPLICATION EQUIPMENT

Metal domes are renowned for the advantages they offer, such as:

  • Excellent tactile effect
  • Very long life cycles
  • Good resistance to environment, chemical conditions, temperature and humidity variations

Nevertheless, dispite it's technical performances, the metal dome technology was tradionaly expensive due to manual positioning.

Now with Nicomatic SwitchAir® process, the metal dome technology becomes competitive. Indeed, combining the use of it's SwitchAir® non-stick domes and it's range of 4 automatic or semi-automatic placement machines (according to the volume required), Nicomatic has drastically reduced the positioning/placement costs.

Product Selection Guide
Vacuum Pen V8901-LMS-ESD

This ESD safe vacuum pen is ideal for picking and placing of metal domes and surface mount components by hand. It avoids any contamination of the component caused by handling. It is supplied with a selection of different size probes.

Tube Work Station 12610 + 12611

  • Height of working table : 500mm to 900mm
  • Weight : 1.5 Kg
  • Positioning rate : approx 1800 domes per hour

This equipment is designed to help the positioning of the domes directly from the tubes. A mechanical device is activated by a foot pedal to make the domes come up in the tube (ref 12610). This equipment is designed to be fixed to your working table (requires 50 to 60mm hole). A pneumatic pen equiped with a venturi block is used to pick up the domes from the top of the tube and place them on a membrane switch board. This pen is delivered with an air reducer and air interruptor block to supply regular output of air and cut the air when the vacuum pen is not used (ref 12611). The changing of tubes is very quick and easy (less than one minute).

Pick & Place for Domes in Tubes 848

  • Floor space ( L x W x H) : 0.92 x 0.77 x 1.30 m
  • Net weight : 250 Kg
  • Positioning rate : up to 3,000 domes per hour with domes in tubes
  • Positioning accuracy ±0.15mm
  • Standard feeding is done by domes in tub loaders (magazines)
  • The pick & place arm has been designed to simulateneously pick metal dome and place 2 metal domes alternatively, allowing an angular positioning from 0° to 90°
This machine allows quick and accurate placement of metal domes 12.2-4leg, 8.4-4leg and 6-4leg on to different kinds of membrane/flexible circuits and printed circuit boards. In addiyion metal domes can be directly placed upside down on adhesive films in order to make arrays of metal domes and thereby reduce assembly cost.

Automatic Dome Pick & Place 12012

  • Floor space (L x W x H) : 1.40 x 1.15 x 1.60 m
  • Net weight : 465 Kg
  • Positioning rate : upto 5,000 domes per hour
  • Positioning accuracy ±0.15mm
  • The domes are loaded in bulk by the operator in a vibrating bowl feeder at the back of the machine
  • The pick and place metal dome allowing an angular positioning from 0° to 90°
This machine allows quick and accurate placement of metal domes 12.2-4leg, 8.4-4leg and 6-4leg on to different kinds of membrane/flexible circuits and printed circuit boards. In addiyion metal domes can be directly placed upside down on adhesive films in order to make arrays of metal domes and thereby reduce assembly cost.

Automatic Dome and Led Pick & Place 17117

  • Working area: 650mm x 650mm
  • Machine size: 1100mm x 1100mm
  • Power requirements: 220V 15 amp
  • Speed: Y - 7" sec, X - 14" sec
  • Air: 120psi, 3cfm
  • Accuracy +/- .05mm

This machine has been developed to place metal domes from tubes, place led's, dispense conductive adhesive and also dispense encapsulant. It places metal domes at a rate up to 1800/hour and will place 0603 to 2012 size chip components at a rate of 1800/hour excluding adhesive dispensing. Rates for combined placement with adhesive equate to 1000/hour. Because a whole range of activities can be undertaken in the same production cycle this machine reduces the amount of material handling and shortens the production cycle to one single operation.

The 17117 can be programmed either by a .dfx translation system (design SW such as AutoCAD) or alternatively by a joystick in conjunction with a camera or a laser pointer.

A number of options are available with this machine including a laser cutting system, dispensing system for a wide range of liquid materials, fiducial recognition/vision registration, liquid resign doming and punching for pin registration.