Kitting Automation via Stepper-Driven Scissors

If you’re need to make a large number of electronics kits, the last thing you want to do is clip and mark sets of components over and over. When “Der Zerhacker” was faced with having to separate several components from a reel thousands of times, he decided to automate the process.

His machine uses a sprocket attached to a stepper motor to advance the strip of parts. When the correct number are exposed, they are chopped off with a pair of scissors driven by another stepper and a spring to pull them open. Along the way, a marker is set up to color each strip of components for easy reference.

The system is controlled by an Arduino Pro Mini, and the holes in the tape and thus the number of components are counted via an infrared sensor. For an improvised solution, the system looks quite useful and robust, and should save a lot of time on this and future projects!

If you’d like to build your own you can find print files and components here, along with the Arduino code. You’ll need to improvise your own schematics, as everything was made from available parts, but it shouldn’t be too difficult for those with some hacking experience!

Check it out in action in the video below!