Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-18
2001-07-31
Young, Lee (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
C029S739000, C029S740000, C029S741000, C029S743000, C029S832000, C029S837000, C029SDIG004
Reexamination Certificate
active
06266873
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for mounting electronic components on to a circuit board.
BACKGROUND ART
One example of a conventional electronic component mounting apparatus is shown in FIG.
6
. Electronic component mounting apparatus
30
comprises a loader
39
for carrying in and out a circuit board
1
, a component feeding unit
35
which stocks trays
3
loaded with electronic components
2
, each tray
3
being fixedly placed on tray shelves stacked in a tray magazine in such a way that the tray
3
accommodating components
2
of desired type is vertically transferred to a proper tray feeding position, a plurality of component feeder reels
32
for supplying electronic components
31
which are stocked in a row on a tape-like member wound around a reel, a mounting head
33
equipped with a suction nozzle
34
which picks up electronic components
2
(
31
) by suction from the component feeding unit
35
or the component feeder reels
32
and mounts them on to the circuit board
1
located at a prescribed mounting position, and an X-Y robot
37
for causing the mounting head
33
to move freely on a plane defined by X and Y axes.
In the above-described arrangement, the mounting head
33
is freely moved by the X-Y robot
37
to pick up components
2
(
31
) from the component feeder reels
32
or the component feeding unit
35
with the suction nozzle
34
and mount them on to the circuit board
1
located at a prescribed position. The posture of the component
2
(
31
) held by the suction nozzle
34
is checked by a component recognizing camera
38
and corrected so as to be mounted precisely at a given mounting position.
Such component mounting action by the mounting head
33
is repeated until all of a given number of components required for one circuit board are completely mounted. Generally, smaller components such as chip components are fed from the component feeder reels
32
whereas components of larger size such as IC or LSI are supplied from the component feeding unit
35
in the apparatus
30
of such kind.
Since the mounting head
33
has only a single suction nozzle
34
in the above described apparatus
30
, the mounting head
33
needs to travel between the component feeder reels
32
or the component feeding unit
35
and the mounting position on the circuit board
1
via the recognizing camera each time one component
2
(
31
) is mounted, thus having rather low productivity.
By providing the mounting head
33
with several nozzles so that components
2
are picked up in plurality at one time to perform continuous mounting action, the productivity may be enhanced. However, in order to pick up a plurality of components
2
supplied from the component feeding unit
35
, the components
2
need to be preliminarily transferred to a prescribed position and aligned in a given mounting order. For that purpose, it is necessary to provide a transfer mechanism which is capable of picking up components
2
and moving along at least two directions (on X-Y plane) and a temporary holding means on which components are held, causing the entire structure-of the apparatus to be large and complicated.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for mounting electronic components having a component transfer mechanism of simple structure for performing efficient component mounting action with a mounting head provided with several nozzles for picking up a plurality of components at one time, whereby supplying and transferring electronic components are efficiently effected thus improving productivity.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
An electronic component mounting apparatus in which a plurality of electronic components preliminarily aligned in a mounting order at a prescribed position are picked up and held by suction with a plurality of nozzles provided on a mounting head and mounted in succession at prescribed mounting positions on a circuit board, according to one aspect of the present invention, is characterized by having: an electronic component feeding unit in which trays loaded with electronic components are stocked and a tray accommodating electronic components of desired type is successively transferred to a tray feeding position; a tray draw-out means having a draw-out arm for pulling out the tray which has been brought to the tray feeding position by coupling the tray to the draw-out arm and moving the draw-out arm forward and backward so that the electronic components desired to be picked up are brought to locate at a component pick-up position along a component transfer line; a component transfer mechanism which travels along one axis or the component transfer line for picking up by suction the electronic components located at the pick-up position and transferring them; and a temporary holder which is positioned on the component transfer line for holding a plurality of electronic components transferred by the transfer mechanism in a mounting order.
According to the above-described arrangement, the tray which has been transferred to the tray feeding position in the component feeding unit is pulled out by the tray draw-out means by an amount such that the electronic components of desired type are brought to locate on a one-axis transfer line of the transfer mechanism. The transfer mechanism picks up the electronic components by suction and transfers them on to the temporary holder located along the component transfer line. As the temporary holder is capable of holding a plurality of electronic components of which number corresponds to the number of mounting nozzles on the mounting head, several electronic components can be aligned on the temporary holder in the order of mounting operation by repeating the aforementioned transferring operation. The mounting head carries out the mounting operation on to the circuit board by picking up several electronic components at a time from the temporary holder while the transferring of electronic components that are to be mounted next is being effected. Due to the arrangement in which the tray draw-out means controls the amount of pulling out the tray to cause the electronic components to locate on the component transfer line and that the temporary holder is disposed on this component transfer line, the transfer mechanism can be constructed to be movable only along one axis, thus allowing the entire structure of the apparatus to be simple and compact.
The temporary holder may be disposed on the draw-out arm of the tray draw-out means, thereby obviating the need for an extra space for installation, further contributing to the simple and compact structure.
Further, the component feeding unit may have a plurality of tray feeding positions, and the tray draw-out means may be arranged in plurality corresponding to such tray feeding positions, each tray draw-out means including the temporary holder disposed on their respective draw-out arms, whereby transfer locations of the electronic components can be more freely selected, thus enhancing the speed and flexibility of the transferring actions.
Since the transfer mechanism moves along a direction crossing at right angles with the direction of movement of the draw-out arm, the transferring of electronic components can be effected on a plane defined by movement ranges of the draw-out arm and the transfer mechanism along two axes similarly as if achieved by a 2-axis movable robot.
Also, an electronic component mounting apparatus in which a plurality of electronic components preliminarily aligned in a mounting order at a prescribed position are picked up and held by suction with a plurality of nozzles provided on a mounting head and mounted in succession at prescribed mounting positions on a circuit board, according to another aspect of the present invention, is characterized by having: an electronic component feeding unit in which trays loaded with electronic components are stocked and a tray accommodating electronic components of desired type is successively transferred to a tray feeding position; a tray draw-out means ha
Kabeshita Akira
Kitamura Naoyuki
Okuda Osamu
Takeda Takeshi
Kim Paul D.
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Price and Gess
Young Lee
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