We used to use the Tapesplicer tool available from http://www.tapesplice.com (Sierra Electronics), in a high mix, low volume environment with MyData's (older feeders).
Short review: It worked. Longer review: First, technique is everything. Splicing strips together is viable, but, if it's done just a little bit sloppy, it will result in jamming in the feeders, lost run time. But, in a short run environment, it's definitely better than hand placing 50 pieces in 5 10 piece strips from Digikey.
Secondly, MRO can get costly, and repetitive. I stopped buying tape extenders after about a year and a half. A big kit can kill your supplies rapidly, and I found it just as efficient to keep stock of some scrape tape to attach to strips/poorly cut reels to extend the take-up side.
Third, technique is essential!
If I were in a long run environment, I probably wouldn't bother splicing two reels together...anecdotally, I believe it to be just as efficient to load two feeders with full reels, and swap them out when the part runs out on the machine (especially if you have a machine that doesn't stop running to install one part).
I recently checked out Samsung feeders that do not require splicing...you load one strip onto the pick area, and load the second strip behind it (actually, on top of it...overlapping. There's a mechanism in the feeder that will move the second strip into position on the feeder sprockets when it senses the overlapped strip dropping into position. You do have to cut the strips on the right holes for it to work optimally, and it currently only supports 8mm parts; but, I thought it was incredibly cool (and surprised that no one else had come up with this idea yet).
cheers, ..rob
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