S3000 Radial Insertion Machine

Six movements between the reel and the clinched lead

The sequence below follows the machine structure in the S3000 user manual. Nothing here is inferred from a photograph.

• Tape loads onto the stations. Taped radial components are loaded onto the feeder stations: ten as standard, fourteen when the product mix needs them. Both a small feeder and a standard large feeder are available and are configured to the customer's component list.
• The feeder cuts and hands over. The feeding mechanism cuts taped components one at a time according to the placement program and delivers each one to the chain gripper.
• The chain carries the part. A chain carries the component from the feeder to the insertion head. Tension is held by fixed plus adaptive spring tensioning across four sprockets, which the manual ties directly to stable and precise component positioning.
• The cover tape comes off. A paper-cutting station peels and cuts the paper tape off the components on the chain, one by one. It is cylinder driven and consists of peeling, cutting and positioning mechanisms.
• Transfer onto the insertion head. The transfer arm takes the component off the chain gripper and delivers it to the main gripper of the insertion head. It is servo driven through a ball screw, with its own material-pushing and clamping mechanism.
• Insert, cut and clinch. The head inserts at any angle from 0 to 360 degrees in one-degree increments. Below the board, the lead-cutting seat cuts the lead to 1.5 +/- 0.3 mm with the short-lead cutter or 2.0 +/- 0.3 mm with the long-lead cutter, and bends it through 10 to 15 degrees to hold the component in place.

Four sub-assemblies carry the whole process

The manual breaks the machine into frame, X-Y table, transfer mechanism, insertion head, lead-cutting seat, feeder, paper-cutting station, chain mechanism and transfer table. These four are the ones that decide what the machine can and cannot do.

• Frame and control layout. Welded square tube, CNC machined into shape. The X-Y and base mechanisms sit on the tabletop with the crossbeam and insertion head above. Pneumatic control is at the lower left front, the pull-out electrical control box on the right, and the isolation transformer and air tank at the left rear.
• X-Y table. Moves the board to the insertion position from the placement coordinates. Lightweight high-strength aluminium alloy with precision linear motion components. The Y axis is ball-screw driven; the X axis is lead-screw driven. Board conveyor power reaches the rails through spring probes.
• Insertion head. An integrated ball screw and spline shaft: one motor drives the ball screw nut for vertical H-axis travel, another drives the spline shaft nut for rotation at any angle, and a press motor drives an eccentric shaft and connecting rod for the press rod. The manual states the spindle uses a ball screw plus spline shaft in one integrated structure.
• Lead-cutting seat. Cylinders control the up, down and cutting actions, with the up-down cylinder driving the cutting cylinder and cutter vertically while the cutting cylinder controls the cut independently. Angle adjustment is servo driven, and a concentricity adjustment block is provided to improve interchangeability between seats.

The published figures do not all match. Here is both sides.

Three Southern Machinery documents describe this machine and they do not agree on every number. None of them is averaged, none of them is silently picked. Each value is printed with the document it came from, so you can check it yourself and confirm the current figure with us before you order.

Turning a CPH number into boards per shift

A speed rating is only useful once it is divided by the component count on one board. Here is that division, done with the published figures and nothing else.

• The number the sheet prints. 20,000 CPH is 333 components a minute. At the actual-speed figure published in the same document, 10,000 CPH, the same hour is 167 components a minute. Both are in the specification sheet, one line apart.
• Divide by the component count. A board carrying 180 radial components takes about 32 seconds at the specification figure and about 65 seconds at the actual-speed figure. A board carrying 400 takes about 72 seconds and about 144 seconds. The component count, not the CPH rating, is what your planner needs.
• What changes the number. Insertion angle, lead span changes, board size and how many stations are actually loaded all move the achievable rate. The manual notes the theoretical speed can be raised by a software system upgrade, which is a claim about the controller rather than about the mechanics.
• Where the real gain sits. The gain that shows up fastest in a cost review is usually not the insertion rate at all. It is the hand insertion and hand forming the machine removes, and the rework on boards where a lead pitch was formed to the wrong gauge.

Six items that change what the machine can do

These are the options the documents describe in enough detail to quote. Each one is listed with the claim attached to it, so you know which part is specification and which part is marketing.

• 90-degree bending retrofit, priced at $10. The brochure prices a retrofit radial feeder for 90-degree component bending at $10.00. For tall radial parts that will not lie flat against the board, this is the cheapest documented upgrade in the range.
• Built-in air storage tank. The machine carries its own air tank. The brochure presents this as reducing downtime and maintenance effort by making the air supply less sensitive to what happens upstream of the machine.
• Built-in 3 kVA regulator. A 3 kVA regulator is built in and is described as minimising downtime and reducing circuit failures. On sites where supply quality is the suspected cause of unexplained stoppages, this is the first option to take.
• Drawer-style control box. The electrical control box pulls out of the frame. The industrial PC sits on its cover, and the servo drives are inside it, which is what makes routine electrical access a two-minute job instead of a panel removal.
• Machine vision with multi-point mark correction. Hole position correction uses a machine vision system with multi-point mark visual correction. The software manual also documents camera exposure control when hole brightness makes a board hard to measure.
• 3D drawings and animations for training. Training material is supplied as 3D drawings and animations, which the brochure presents as making the working principle easier to understand. It matters most in factories where operators rotate between machines.

Six requirements before the machine lands

These come from the manual's parameter table and its pneumatic and control sections. They are the items that delay an installation when they are discovered on the day rather than before it.

• Power. 220 V AC single-phase, 50/60 Hz, 2.0 kVA connected load, 1.6 kW running consumption. Servo drives take single-phase 220 V in and put three-phase 200 V out. DC 24 V and 36 V are provided by a switching power supply inside the cabinet.
• Compressed air. 0.6 to 0.8 MPa at 0.2 cubic metres a minute. The manual is explicit that the air must be dried by a dryer and filtered before it reaches the machine, then passed through a manual switch, pressure regulator, oil filter and atomising cup on the way to the tank.
• Floor space and loading. Main unit 1700 x 1500 x 1600 mm, feeder rack 1600 x 500 x 900 mm, weight 800 kg at ten stations or 880 kg per the specification sheet. Confirm the figure for your configuration before specifying floor loading.
• Environment. Ambient temperature 5 to 25 degrees Celsius, in a non-humid, non-corrosive environment. Published machine noise is 80 dB. Both are manual figures and both are worth checking against your actual shop floor in summer.
• Component and board density. Component bodies must have 1 mm spacing, and the distance between surface-mount components and the holes to be inserted must not be less than 3 mm. This is a design rule for the board, not a machine limit, and it is the one that most often forces a layout change.
• Board handling. The machine takes automatic loading and unloading of boards, with symmetrical transfer tables on the left and right rails. The transfer tables are cylinder driven vertically and will not descend on their own shortly after air is removed.

What happens after the installation week

The brochure's service page and the manual's maintenance schedule describe two halves of the same commitment. Both are stated here as claims, with the source named.

• 24/7 worldwide support. Stated in the specification sheet as 24/7 worldwide support. For a machine on a single shift this matters less; for a machine running continuously it is the item that decides whether the machine is a bottleneck or a delay.
• Free installation and training. Installation and training are stated as free. Training material includes the 3D drawings and animations referenced above, which shortens the path for operators who rotate between machines.
• One-day spare parts lead time. A stated one-day lead time on spare parts. Read it together with the Universal cross-reference claim: fast delivery matters less if the part is also easy to source elsewhere.
• One-month custom solution. A stated one-month turnaround for a customised solution. Radial insertion is a component-specific business, so the question to ask is which parts of the customisation are mechanical and which are programming.
• A maintenance schedule, not just a schedule of parts. The manual documents daily, weekly, monthly and annual maintenance. A published radial-machine maintenance routine exists in the video catalogue as well, which is unusual and useful for planning shutdown windows.
• Programming, correction and fault-finding in one interface. The manual describes digital control that makes programming, auto correction, adjustment and fault-finding faster and more intuitive. The software manual documents each page, including a feeder test routine and per-axis relative motion for fault finding.

The wear parts are named, numbered and grouped

The fourth document behind this page is the spare parts list for the standard frame in 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0 mm spans. It is not a price list. It is a numbered list of what wears, which assembly it belongs to, and how many of each the machine carries.

• 56 numbered positions, ten assembly groups. The list runs from the work table to the lubricants, and every position carries the quantity fitted to the machine rather than a recommended order quantity. Version 1.1, dated November 2024.
• The insertion head carries the most. 19 of the 56 positions sit in the insertion head: jaws, material presser, connecting rods, springs and NSK bearings. It is the assembly that moves fastest and wears first.
• The lead-cutting head is listed separately. 9 positions cover the cutting blade, the bending blade, the solid pin, the springs and the adjustment linkage that set the finished lead length and the bend angle.
• Components are named by brand, not only by drawing number. AirTAC valves and cylinders, a 24 V relay, the servo backup battery, THK rail grease and BKD lithium grease all appear by name. A wear part you can buy locally is worth more than a part number alone.
• Part numbers follow the assembly they belong to. Eleven positions carry a PIS-3000- number, grouped by assembly code: 02 for the work table, 04 for the insertion head, 06 for feeding, 11 for the paper-cutting station. The number tells you where the part lives.
• Consumables are held to the same discipline. Lubricants and oils are listed with the same grouping, quantity and brand as the mechanical parts. That matters because the published monthly running cost claim rests on exactly these items.