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Does anyone have experience with RPS Selective Solder machines?

Does anyone have experience with RPS Selective Solder machines?

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I've seen their promo videos and machine specs. I'm wonderi... - Nov 22, 2021 by ProcEng1

I purchased, ran, programmed, and maintained a RPS slide for... - Nov 22, 2021 by dontfeedphils

What about programming? How easy/difficult? ... - Nov 22, 2021 by Stephen

From what I remember it was pretty easy/straightforward. I'd... - Nov 22, 2021 by dontfeedphils

Hi. To add to your homework... 1) RPS are from the former t... - Nov 23, 2021 by kumarb

I am aware that RPS was former ACE employees or whatever the... - Nov 23, 2021 by ProcEng1

ProcEng1

#87322

Does anyone have experience with RPS Selective Solder machines? | 22 November, 2021

I've seen their promo videos and machine specs.

I'm wondering how the machines actually run. How hard is it to keep the nozzles clean to get a good wave? How are they about support and replacement parts? Any issues with software bugs? Feel free to email me if you want.

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dontfeedphils

#87325

Does anyone have experience with RPS Selective Solder machines? | 22 November, 2021

I purchased, ran, programmed, and maintained a RPS slide for a number of years and can't say that I had any major complaints about it.

It ran well as long as it was maintained well (which is no different than any other SS I've worked on). Support was pretty good if memory serves me, and spare parts were easy to get and fairly inexpensive. We had a setup that allowed us to switch back and forth from tin-lead to RoHS in about 15-20 mins if you knew what you were doing.

If the nozzles were properly maintained and you are getting a good N2 blanket around the nozzle then they flowed great and I had no problems.

All in all I really enjoyed the machine and working with RPS, especially given the price of the machine when purchased. FYI, this was all between the years of 2013-2017.

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Stephen

#87326

Does anyone have experience with RPS Selective Solder machines? | 22 November, 2021

What about programming? How easy/difficult?

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dontfeedphils

#87328

Does anyone have experience with RPS Selective Solder machines? | 22 November, 2021

From what I remember it was pretty easy/straightforward. I'd grab an image of the bottom side of the panel from our AOI, scale it, and load it into the offline programming suite. Program flux and solder paths, then iron out the kinks online during the first run of boards.

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kumarb

#87331

Does anyone have experience with RPS Selective Solder machines? | 23 November, 2021

Hi. To add to your homework...

1) RPS are from the former team that developed the ACE KISS product line.

2) From brief chats, NORDSON is still building the last versions of the ACE KISS designs while RPS has continued to advance the tool.

3) Another one that may be of interest is a large player in China that is located in the USA and with some history with the original ACE product line. See the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhBwq0JoI60

This product is very similar but at a much lower price point. The video is the ANT-i2 but believe the ANT-i1 was about $20k USD.

This design has won some awards.

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ProcEng1

#87332

Does anyone have experience with RPS Selective Solder machines? | 23 November, 2021

I am aware that RPS was former ACE employees or whatever the relationship was, and that the basic design is very similar.

I have a lot of experience with first generation ACE products before they were acquired by NORDSON.

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