Southern Machinery odd form insertion machine on the THT line

Odd Form Insertion Machine Pickup Position Setting: Why the Pick Point Decides THT Yield

Odd-form insertion projects are usually specified on mechanics — head count, feeders, speed class, footprint — and then judged on data. The failures that stop a DIP line are rarely mechanical. They are the machine picking the right component from the wrong place: a nozzle that descends a fraction off the centre of a transformer body, a gripper that closes on a connector housing at an angle, a pickup height taught to a tray that was later reloaded with a different stack.

Lesson 6 of Southern Machinery's odd form machine training series covers pickup position setting — the step where the programmer defines exactly where, and at what height, the machine meets each component. It is the lesson that connects the machine's mechanics (Lesson 2, nozzle data) and the board geometry (Lessons 3 to 5, PCB data and mark points) to the component definition (Lesson 7, material settings) and the repetitive placement logic (Lesson 8, array data and automatic learning). Get the pickup position wrong and every downstream parameter is executing faithfully against a bad reference.

The training lesson is embedded below.

Direct link: watch Lesson 6 of the odd form machine training series on YouTube

What is this machine used for?

An odd-form insertion machine is the THT station that handles what the rest of the assembly line cannot. Transformers, relays, connectors, fuse holders, terminal blocks, radial electrolytic capacitors, inductors, lamps and optoelectronic parts are neither radial tape, axial tape nor SMD. They arrive in trays, tubes, vibratory bowls or loose bags, with different lead pitches, asymmetric bodies and no common presentation standard. A radial inserter cannot be pointed at them, and manual insertion gives you one operator, one part, one board at a time.

An odd-form machine picks each part with a nozzle or a gripper, presents it to the board, seats the leads into the programmed holes to a programmed depth and clinches underneath, so the board can continue into wave soldering without being re-handled.

As a reference point for this equipment class, the documented specification of the S-70LD odd form insertion machine describes four insertion heads with four adjustable feeders (tape or vibration plate), a 4,000 CPH insertion speed (3,800 CPH noted for radial resistor insertion), ±0.05 mm insertion accuracy, components from 3×3 mm to 30×30 mm and up to 50 mm high, PCBs from 50×50 mm to 300×300 mm at 0.8–5.0 mm thickness, a 220 V AC / 0.8 kVA supply and a machine weight of roughly 1,000 kg. Southern Machinery's odd-form platforms, including the S7900 series, address the same job class at other board sizes and throughput levels.

Those numbers describe capability. What determines whether the capability is realised on your product is the program — and the pickup position is where the program meets the physical part.

What "pickup position setting" actually controls

Pickup position setting is the teaching step that defines the geometric relationship between the picking tool and the component as it is actually presented. On the training series, it is handled before the machine is left to run a cycle unattended, because pickup error is the one class of error that compounds: a part picked off-centre is placed off-centre, and the insertion force then acts on the leads at an angle rather than straight down the hole.

In practical terms, the setting covers several distinct things, and a buyer evaluating any odd-form platform should ask how each one is taught, stored and recalled:

Pickup position in X and Y. The nominal centre of the component as it sits in the feeder, referenced to the pickup tool. This is where presentation format matters most — a part in a tape pocket, a part in a tube, a part in a vibratory bowl and a part in a tray do not share a coordinate system, so the same component usually needs a separate pickup definition per presentation.
Pickup height and its reference (Z). How far the tool descends before it takes the part or closes on the body. This is the parameter that most often drifts with material presentation: tray stack height, tube angle and bowl track level all change the effective pickup plane, and a height that was correct on the first tray can be wrong on the fifth.
Tool engagement. Which nozzle or gripper is assigned to the pickup, and whether that tool takes the part by vacuum on a flat surface, by gripping the body, or by locating on the leads. The pickup definition and the tool definition have to agree; this is why nozzle data (Lesson 2) and pickup position (Lesson 6) are taught in sequence.
Tolerance and retry behaviour. What the machine does when the part is not where it expected to find it — whether it retries at an offset, raises an alarm, or skips the position. That behaviour is a production policy decision, not just a machine setting.
Verification after teaching. What the operator checks on the first article to confirm that the taught pickup produces a correctly seated part, rather than a part that is inserted but sitting proud of the board. A pickup reference should be validated by the insertion result, not by the teaching screen indicating success.

The exact screen labels, teach sequences and file formats differ between machine platforms, controller generations and software revisions. That is worth knowing before you buy: ask to see pickup position being taught for your part and your feeder presentation, on the machine you are quoting — not a demo dataset prepared for a trade show.

Typical applications

1. Home appliance control boards. Air conditioners, washing machines, rice cookers, induction cookers and microwaves carry relays, connectors and transformers alongside radial parts. These component families recur across many SKUs, so a pickup definition that is correct and reusable is what turns a model changeover into a data change instead of a mechanical re-setup.

2. Power supply and adapter PCBA. Vehicle power supplies, energy-saving power supplies and ballasts use transformers, inductors, radial capacitors and optoelectronic parts — frequently the same electrical part in tape on one product and in bulk or a vibratory bowl on another. Each presentation needs its own pickup definition, and that is exactly where a badly maintained program produces systematic mis-insertion.

3. LED drivers and lighting electronics. Radial capacitors, inductors and lamps have to be seated to a consistent height before wave soldering. Body orientation and lead length affect the mechanical fit of the finished luminaire, so an off-centre pickup that produces a tilted body is a functional defect, not a cosmetic one.

4. Automotive and vehicle electronics. Car audio and vehicle power supply boards combine odd-form parts with mixed SMT and THT content. Polarity and seating depth are reliability characteristics; a pickup definition that consistently presents the part the same way to the vision system is part of how that repeatability is held cycle to cycle.

5. EMS and ODM plants running high-mix DIP assembly. Where one line builds many board variants that share component families, the pickup and material library is the changeover asset. Plants that win here are the ones where a new product is largely a matter of referencing existing definitions and teaching the board, rather than re-teaching every part from scratch.

How it fits into a complete PCB assembly line

Pickup position is set at one station, but its consequences travel the whole flow:

SMT block first. Stencil printing, SPI, pick-and-place and reflow build the SMD side. Southern Machinery's SMT range covers this stage — semi-automatic pick-and-place platforms such as the S-530L for LED and lens mounting, the S-DU800 series for higher-volume placement, SPI and AOI inspection, and the SMT intelligent reel storage systems that keep material kitting traceable and FIFO-controlled.
Component preparation. Radial taping and lead forming, bulk capacitor taping with polarity check, and axial-to-radial tapping convert loose parts into insertion-ready format. If the forming is wrong, no pickup definition can compensate: the machine will faithfully pick and insert a badly formed lead.
Feeding. Tape, tube, tray, vibratory bowl and belt feeders determine what the pickup definition can actually describe. Southern Machinery's feeder range covers these presentations — dual vibratory bowl feeders, multi-lane and stacked tube feeders, radial THT tape feeders such as the RTF-1001 that clamp the lead before cutting to limit component jumping, and belt bulk feeders for parts that tolerate neither vibration nor taping. Feeder selection and pickup planning belong in the same conversation.
THT insertion block. The odd-form inserter works alongside the S-3010B radial inserter, the S-3000 radial insertion machine for DIP assembly, the S4000 axial inserter and the S7020 Series PIN/eyelet/terminal inserter. Each station holds its own pickup and material library, so standardising naming and teaching conventions across machines pays back the first time a product moves between lines.
Soldering and lead finishing. Inserted boards move into lead-free wave soldering — the S-WS450, or the PC-controlled dual-wave S-WS350B — and then to the S-320AT inline auto lead cutter. A pickup error is not contained at the insertion station: it becomes a systematic seating or tilt defect that only shows up after soldering, on every board in the batch.
Cleaning and inspection. Aqueous pallet and stencil cleaning, SPI, AOI, online wave-solder appearance checking and X-ray equipment catch what insertion produced. The later a pickup defect is discovered, the more of the line it has already travelled through.
Board handling and support. Magazine loaders and unloaders, conveyors, PCB turnover machines and buffer storage such as the S-TS500 keep the line flowing while a program or pickup change is verified. The service ecosystem behind it — spare parts across Panasonic, Fuji, JUKI, Yamaha, Samsung, Siplace, DEK, TDK and Universal platforms, custom nozzles and grippers, repair, retrofit and operator training — is what keeps the pickup library current over the machine's working life.

Key selection parameters

The table below lists the parameters worth confirming in a quotation. Where a documented figure exists for the S-70LD platform it is shown as a reference; everything else is a category to verify against your own build.

| Parameter | Documented S-70LD reference | What to confirm for your build |

|---|---|---|

| Insertion heads / feeders | 4 heads, 4 adjustable feeders (tape or vibration plate) | Head count, feeder-station count, and the presentation formats your part list actually needs |

| Component envelope | 3×3 mm to 30×30 mm, up to 50 mm high | Your largest and heaviest odd-form parts, and body-to-body clearance on the board |

| Speed class | 4,000 CPH (3,800 CPH noted for radial resistors) | Required rate against component count per board and changeover frequency |

| Insertion accuracy | ±0.05 mm | Hole-to-lead clearance and positional tolerance in your board design |

| PCB range | 50×50 mm to 300×300 mm, 0.8–5.0 mm thick | Smallest board, largest panel and maximum panel weight |

| Pickup teaching | Covered by this lesson in the training series | Whether pickup position is taught per feeder station, per presentation and per tool, and how it is stored |

| Vision guidance | Vision-guided platform with lead-geometry recognition | Whether the vision system verifies pickup and orientation before placement or only after |

| Tooling | Custom nozzles and grippers available | Availability, lead time and cost of tooling for each odd-form family you run |

| Presentation formats | Tape or vibration plate on the documented platform | Tape, tube, tray and bulk feeding — and whether your current packaging is reliable in each |

| Clinching | Documented on the odd-form platform | Inward or outward clinch to suit your solder process and IPC class |

| Line interface | Inline station with SMEMA handshake | Conveyor height, direction and handshake with your existing DIP line |

| Utilities and environment | 220 V AC, 0.8 kVA; air 0.4–0.6 MPa; noise ≤75 dB | Site power, air supply, noise specification and floor loading |

| Footprint / weight | Approximately 1,000 kg | Access for setup, maintenance and feeder loading |

Beyond the specification, confirm what you are buying with the machine: a documented pickup-teaching procedure, a naming convention your operators can follow, training that covers pickup and material setup rather than only mechanical operation, and a first-article verification rule that is written down rather than remembered.

ROI and quality perspective

From a buyer's perspective, pickup position is where the cost and quality arguments converge:

Pickup errors are batch errors, not single-part errors. A pickup off centre or at the wrong height does not stop the machine — it produces the same defect on every board until somebody notices. The cost of that discovery is counted in boards, not in units. If it is caught only after wave soldering and cleaning, correction means desoldering, hole cleaning, re-insertion and re-soldering, with a real risk of damaging adjacent components.
Manual insertion variability is the baseline being replaced. Southern Machinery's published analysis of manual odd-form insertion notes that hand-inserted connectors cost several seconds each — varying with operator familiarity, part orientation and presentation — and that across a large run with several odd-form components per board, that variability adds up to hours of unplanned labour. It also notes consistently higher rates of floating high, mis-insertion and reverse insertion. Automation removes that variability, but only if pickup, orientation and insertion data are right.
Field-failure asymmetry argues for disciplined pickup and seating data. For a transformer with six to ten pins, a single non-seated pin can become a field failure costing many times the board's assembly value. A pickup definition that presents the part squarely, a verified insertion depth and an orientation check before placement are cheap insurance against that class of escape.
Reusable pickup definitions are the changeover dividend. If a shared component family is taught once and referenced by many programs, a new product introduction is mostly board teaching. If every program re-teaches every pickup, your engineer's time — not the machine's cycle time — becomes the constraint on how many variants the line can run per shift.
Traceability has a data dimension. As customers push for documented process control and ESG-style reporting, knowing which pickup definition, material revision and program were used on a production batch is the difference between an answer and a guess.

Model it with your own numbers: odd-form components per board, boards per order, current programming hours per new product, present mis-insert and rework rate, and the cost of a defect found after soldering. In most plants the arithmetic favours a machine with a real pickup and material database and a team trained to maintain it — long before it favours more manual stations.

FAQ

What is pickup position setting on an odd-form insertion machine?

It is the teaching step that defines exactly where and at what height the machine's nozzle or gripper meets each component as it is presented by its feeder — the X and Y reference to the part, the Z pickup height, the tool assigned to the pick, and the machine's behaviour when the part is not found where expected. It is set per feeder station and typically per presentation format.

Why does pickup position matter more than insertion speed when choosing an odd-form inserter?

Because speed determines how fast the machine can place parts, while pickup correctness determines whether it places the right part in the right place, repeatably, on every board. A machine with excellent mechanics and a poorly taught pickup produces systematic seating and tilt defects; a machine with clean, reusable pickup and material definitions turns new product introduction into a data exercise rather than a mechanical one.

Does the same component need a different pickup position for different packaging?

Usually yes. The same electrical part delivered in tape, in a tube, in a tray or loose in a vibratory bowl does not share a coordinate system or a pickup plane, so each presentation generally needs its own pickup definition and often different feeder hardware. That is why packaging decisions and insertion-platform selection should be made together.

How is the pickup height affected during a production run?

Tray stack height, tube angle and bowl track level all change the effective pickup plane as material is consumed or reloaded. A height taught on the first tray can be wrong on a later one, which is why missing-component handling, retry behaviour and a periodic verification check matter as much as the initial teaching.

What should be verified after a pickup change or a material change?

At minimum: that the correct pickup definition is active for the program, that the pickup height suits the presentation currently loaded, that orientation or polarity checking is enabled where the part is polarised, and that insertion depth and clinch produce a correctly seated part on a first-article board. That verification should be a documented rule, not an operator's recollection.

What should a buyer ask to see before purchasing an odd-form inserter?

Ask to see pickup position taught for your own components and your own packaging on the machine being quoted — including the teach sequence, how the data is stored and recalled, how it is reused across programs, and how the pickup is verified. A demo dataset built for a trade show does not answer any of those questions.

How does an odd-form machine fit the rest of the THT line?

It is an inline station upstream of wave soldering, working alongside radial and terminal/PIN inserters. Pickup, material and tooling definitions should be consistent across those stations so that a product moving between machines or between lines does not have to be re-taught from scratch.

Contact Southern Machinery

Southern Machinery (Shenzhen, China; established 2011; 237+ global customers) designs and manufactures SMT, THT and PCB assembly automation — insertion machines, wave soldering, board handling, cleaning, inspection, feeders and nozzles, and the spare parts, training, retrofit and repair services around them.

For help evaluating an odd-form insertion machine, planning pickup and feeder setup for your part list, training your operators, or reviewing a complete SMT/THT line, contact the team:

Email: [jasonwu@smthelp.com](mailto:jasonwu@smthelp.com)
Website: www.smthelp.com
Catalogs, manuals & documents: file.autoinsertion.com
Product images: ph.smthelp.com
Machine operation manuals & training library: SMT/THT machine operation manual library on smthelp.com

Watch the complete odd-form machine training series on the Southern Machinery YouTube channel, including this lesson on pickup position setting.

Odd Form Insertion Machine Pickup Position Setting | Southern Machinery