Looking for assembly line (PnP, stencil, oven) purchasing advice

[Bansci]

I work at a UK university and I'm part of a spin-out company building a IoT sensor. For a large number of reasons (politics, passion, teaching students, iteration cycle time, and some novel production ideas) we're looking at in-house assembly of our PCBs. I know this is generally a "bad idea" but we're doing it anyway  .
We currently get our prototypes 95% assembled at JLCPCB then hand solder some hard-to-source sensor parts. Currently assembling 5-10 a month but want to grow to 100+ a month in a year or two if funding works out. The PCB is 50x70mm with 47 unique BOM items, nothing smaller than 0603 to make rework easier during this prototyping stage but would like to go smaller for cost/size later. We have a budget of £25k for the stencil printer, PnP, and oven. We already have a room with power, extraction, and compressed air supply but also a 80cm door. In house we currently have a Pandaplacer CC1 (which has been loads of fun) and a protoflow S4 oven (which is not so much fun). Would like OpenPnP support as a fall-back software option, and to allow hacking for the production ideas if at all possible.

Due to university procurement rules I need three quotes, and preferably suppliers in the UK/EU due to the background checks, shipping/tax. I've started collecting options into a table below that fit my "prosumer" price bracket and would welcome other suggestions/comments. Hopefully by collecting a table I'm providing something in return for any suggestions/feedback you guys can share.

Machine	Cost	Supplier	Notes
Lumen PnP	$4,990.00	Opulo	50 feeders, 20x8mm 5x12mm 3x16mm 2x24mm custom feeders
CC1	$600	PandaPlacer	50x8mm custom 3d printed feeders (already own this)
A01	$990	MicroSMT	30 8mm custom feeders included
Panda basic/pro	$3699/41991	SmallSMT	72 push feeders
Lynx	$7699-$99993	SmallSMT	2 head, 32xCL pneumatic? feeders, 40 push
SMT550 / HW-T4-50F	£5923	HWGC/YX	4 heads, 50 feeders pneumatic/electric CL, conveyor, OpenPnP runs on the machine!4
SMT660(-F)	£9081(-F+£800)	HWGC/YX	6 heads, 60 CL feeders (included?), conveyor (-F adds flycam)
SMT880-F	£12477	HWGC/YX	8 heads, 80 CL feeders (included?), flycam, conveyor
SMT880-S	£16425	HWGC/YX	8 heads, 96 NXT feeders (included?)
YY1	£5202.99	Neoden	Feeder kit incl. – 41 x 8mm, 6 x 12mm and 3 x 16mm + drag and vibrator feeders. Looks tough to operate hands free (see SeanHodginsToo YT)
4C	£9899.0	Neoden	4 heads, 48 custom feeders
K1830	£19950	Neoden	8 heads, 66 feeders
APP452	€14950 ex VAT	SMDA	4 heads, 52 CL feeders, conveyor
APP670	€19950 ex vat	SMDA	6 heads, 70 CL feeders, conveyor
A4L	$?	KAYO	4 heads, 46 feeders, conveyor
A6L	$?	KAYO	6 heads, 60 feeders, conveyor

Manufacturers/suppliers notes (up for debate)

• Lumen US supplier, using OpenPNP, and very open design. I love OpenPnP and I'm already enjoying my PandaPlacer which the lumen looks like a big step up from, but from reading I think I want something using industrial feeders (i.e electric CL feeders) as they're more reliable and placement speed in video seems low compared to other options?
• SmallSMT - German supplier, but many machines supplied from China. Its bad there's no indicative pricing on the website, had to dig in forum posts for past prices. Has own software V2/V3 but seems that V3 requires a subscription for updates of $280/yr or $450 to restart². Seems to have OpenPnP support too?
• HWGC/YX - Chinese machines from HWGC, but supplier in EU is YX. Prices from ebay, I think they do not include feeders, or maybe pneumatic CL feeders? Will contact the supplier and update. OpenPnP support for the SMT550.
• Neoden - Actually has a UK supplier (https://www.ams-electronics.co.uk). YY1 looks high maintenance and out of date. Not sure about the 4C line? Includes feeders it seems.
• Charmhigh - Steering away from them due to unexpected maker's experience.
• MicroSMT - Just found this Chinese supplier
• SMDA - Netherlands supplier https://smdassembly.com/, also supplies Neoden
• KAYO - https://www.kayosmt.eu
• Shawline - Lists stock of 2nd hand machines with prices https://www.shawline.co.uk/

Notes
¹ Price for SmallSMT Panda/Pro was from this 2023 forum post but before release https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/smallsmt-vision-placer-pick-place-machines/msg4885127/#msg4885127
² Subscription for V3 software was from this post https://www.smallsmt.biz/2025/10/22/new-machine-control-software/
³ Price from this forum post https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/smallsmt-vision-placer-pick-place-machines/msg5161626/#msg5161626
⁴ PR request for SMT550 support on OpenPnP https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/pull/1956


I'll add ovens and stencil printer options later if this goes well.

[mikeselectricstuff]

and placement speed in video seems low compared to other options?

For 100 a month, placement speed isn't going to be a high priority. Things like ability to efficiently use short tapes, ease of setup etc. will be more important.

[GerardG]

Maybe you can add the SMDA-APP452 to the list. Comes with a strip feeder for the cut-tapes as a standard. 4 nozzles, 52 feeder positions and 16 strips.
Service and stock in the Netherlands or by AMS: https://smdassembly.com/contents/en-uk/d24_Pick-and-Place-Machines.html

Bigger one SMDA-APP670 same setup, only a little bigger. 6 nozzles, 70 feeder positions and 23 strips.

The APP452 is a little bigger than the Neoden4c and fits pneumatic CL type feeders.

I think AMS can show you the Neoden machines working. I believe they have some in stock.
They also sell a strip feeder tray for prototyping.
https://www.ams-electronics.co.uk/shop/neoden/neoden-accessories/neoden-sft1000-strip-feeder-tray/

[Bansci]

placement speed isn't going to be a high priority. Things like ability to efficiently use short tapes, ease of setup etc. will be more important.

Agreed!

Maybe you can add the SMDA-APP452 to the list....

Thanks this is great, I'll add these later today!

[SMTech]

Kayo is another Chinese brand that has some kind of European distribution.

Its also well worth looking at second user. These days, in the UK at least this seems to be hard work, the only place I know that lists things it can sell/broker is Shawline. Grovesales used to, Elite7 sometimes trades in presumably the other distributors do to but ehy either have someone lined up who they know will take the machine they have traded or they send it straight to the scrapper. There are are few poorly advertised broker/sellers with virtually no internet presence, might be worth a thread of their own if anyone could pin tails on them.

[danielm]

If you are considering HWGC machines, I suggest to join this Discord group: https://discord.gg/8w9j3xYH5
There is a guy called Liu who works directly in the factory and can arrange shipping for you. As far as I know YX only resells their products.
I am not really sure if you can fit T4 through your door. I have only limited space for a pnp so I am considering T2.
Software should be identical for entire HWGC lineup so once you need to scale up you already know hot to work with it.
There are also many users of HWGC machines on the forum so you can get support from both manufacturer and also experienced users.
Also if you check history of the forum there is a lot of valuable information.