Glue dot dispenser

[SteveW]

A machine I just picked up has a weird feeder, that appears to be a glue dot dispenser, with a little spinning tub and what looks like a scraper bar that might set the glue height.
I'm not sure it's terribly useful looking - has anyone played with one? Any recommendations for glue? (I'm assuming something seriously heat-cured, since UV won't get under, and placing while glue times out strikes me as a bit stressful...)

Steve

[Mike]

Can you post some pics?

[SteveW]

Will do - just dropped the machine off at the unit and went back to the day job. Should get to play tomorrow...

[SteveW]

Right, some (trimmed, originals are available) photos.

It looks like the scheme is to have the tub rotate with glue in it, at a depth set by the scraper.
I've got no idea what the opto widgets are - they're definitely Versatronics-style machined anodised and be-magnetted, and with the classic D-type shroud.
There's nowhere to plug them into on the feeder chassis that the glue dispenser is wired in to. I haven't had it apart yet, or poked at the wires in the D-plugs, to see if they're TX/RX pairs for a beam-blocker or something. There are two sets, each with a D-9, 2 widgets and a V-shaped loom.

All in all, no damn idea!

(Does anyone actually use glue? I thought that went out with wave, more or less? (Not saying wave is dead - just that Versatronics users don't strike me as the sort to be running a massive wave machine, and I don't think they ever got that small?))

Steve

[Gopher]

Curious, back in the days before of yore when we did surface mount using a manual machine, I think we experimented unsuccessfully with gluing large IC's but it didn't at all help.
I agree small companies would be unlikely to be gluing for wave-soldering, as I understand it that requires extensive tooling to get the solder where you want it as well as a design explicitly optimised for the process.
I have come across some modern devices that mention gluing as an optional support, and one expensive & fragile gyro where something in addition to the tiny PCB-edge pads would have been nice.
These days however glue options are typically dispensers that can extrude dots & lines of glues epoxies or just about any other fluid including conductive epoxies for exotic assemblies, you even see them on printers some sectors still require it?
A flux dispenser for PoP works just like this, add some flux and then do some judicious lying to the machine about the nozzle lengths and device heights in question and you could possily use it for that?