Package making – Methods – Forming or partial forming a receptacle and subsequent filling
Reexamination Certificate
2003-02-04
2004-02-24
Rada, Rinaldi (Department: 3721)
Package making
Methods
Forming or partial forming a receptacle and subsequent filling
C264S272150, C264S272170
Reexamination Certificate
active
06694707
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for populating transport tapes with electronic components.
Such transport tapes have preformed tape pockets, in which electronic components can be disposed and transported in an accurate position, and can be removed from the transport tapes in an accurate position. For the purpose of transport, the tape pockets of a transport tape are covered with the aid of a cover tape strip so that the electronic components cannot fall out of the tape pockets and their position in relation to the three spatial axes cannot change until they are removed from the transport tapes. During the introduction and positioning, in particular, of small and/or lightweight electronic components, such as are needed in great numbers for high-frequency engineering, lighting and laser engineering, and the like, rapid population with a high throughput rate is associated with the risk that the components will jump out of the tape pockets, and, therefore, considerably hamper the fitting operation of an automatic fitting machine for transport tapes, particularly, because, not only does the fitting have to be interrupted, but the automatic machine has to be thoroughly searched for the electronic components that have jumped out, and the fitting position of the automatic machine has to be redefined and readjusted.
A further problem in the population of transport tapes with small and/or lightweight electronic components in the millimeter range is to be seen in the fact that the precision requirements both on the shaping of the tape pockets and on the automatic fitting machine require continually increasing investment and development costs, in order to position the electronic components precisely and in an accurate position in the tape pockets and to meet these precision requirements.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method for populating transport tapes that overcome the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices and methods of this general type and that makes possible reliable and precise population of transport tapes with electronic components.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided, in accordance with the invention, an apparatus for populating transport tapes with electronic components, including a mold support having at least one recess for shaping tape pockets to hold the electronic components therein, a flat plastic strip disposed on the mold support covering the at least one recess, a heater for heating at least one of the mold support and the plastic strip, and an embossing tool having an embossing area for holding at least one of the electronic components therein, the embossing tool pressing the plastic strip into the at least one recess in the mold support with the electronic component positioned in the embossing area to mold the tape pocket with the electronic component.
According to the invention, the apparatus for populating transport tapes with electronic components includes a mold support having at least one recess for shaping tape pockets to hold electronic components in the tape pockets. Furthermore, the apparatus includes a plastic strip that, as a flat raw tape, is disposed on the mold support, covering the recess. A heater for heating the mold support and/or the plastic strip, and also an embossing tool are provided, the embossing tool having the electronic component in its embossing area, and it being possible for the tape pocket to be molded by the electronic component positioned in the embossing area as the electronic component presses the plastic strip into the recess in the mold support.
Using such a populating apparatus, the precision requirements on the automatic fitting machine are reduced considerably because the embossing tool for introducing tape pockets into a flat raw tape has the electronic component to be packaged in its embossing area, which means that the electronic component itself determines the closely tolerated dimensions of the tape pocket and shapes the tape pocket and, at the same time, the transport tape is populated with the electronic component in the tape pocket. This additionally means that the depositioning of the plastic strip on the mold support does not present any particularly high precision requirements. In addition, the recesses in the mold support have to correspond only roughly to the dimensions of the electronic component, it being possible to use one recess size for a number of tolerance classes of the electronic components, and, therefore, one mold support for a number of tolerance classes of electronic components.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the embossing tool is a fitting element of an automatic fitting machine so that the automatic fitting machine continually supplies the embossing tool with electronic components in the embossing area and, in a manner similar to an automatic punching machine, the embossing tool molds the tape pockets with the aid of the electronic component in its embossing area and, at the same time, populates the pockets with the electronic component.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the embossing tool is an embossing punch, in whose embossing area the electronic component can be fixed by vacuum. This has the advantage that it becomes possible for the action of picking up the electronic component from the feed device that determines its position, the fixing of the component in the embossing area of the embossing tool, and the shaping of the tape pocket for the electronic component in the recess in the mold support to be carried out under vacuum. To populate the transport tape with the electronic component at the same time, it is merely necessary to cancel the vacuum fixing of the component in the embossing area of the embossing punch in order to position the electronic component in the self-molded tape pocket. For such a purpose, the embossing tool has a central evacuable bore, by which the component can be fixed in the embossing area when vacuum is applied to the central bore in the embossing tool.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the embossing tool is connected to a drive mechanism, by which, firstly, the embossing tool can be displaced in the Z direction toward the recess in the mold support and in the directions X and Y orthogonal thereto. Such an embodiment of the apparatus has the advantage that the embossing tool can be displaced in the directions X and Y orthogonal to the Z direction after the embossing tool has been lowered into the recess in the Z direction. The displacement in the X and Y directions can be carried out by excitation into ultrasonic oscillation, it becoming possible for the ultrasonic amplitude to be adjusted and, therefore, the requisite very close tolerance between the molded tape pocket and the dimensions of the electronic component to be produced. As a result of the creation of the tolerance, access by an automatic removal machine to the component positioned in the tape pocket is made easier and, secondly, the electronic component can be removed at the remover in an accurate position following population and transport. Furthermore, no transport tapes with prefabricated tape pockets and correspondingly close tolerances have to be prepared because the close tolerance is produced by the electronic component itself with the aid of the embossing tool and the movement in the X and Y directions.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, a recess in the mold support has, in its bottom area, an evacuable bore for shaping the tape pocket in the bottom area of the recess. With the aid of the evacuable bore, the bottom area of the tape pocket can be made to rest closely on the bottom area of the recess so that the depth of the tape pocket is determined by the depth of the recess in the mold support and, at the same time, the punch pressure on the embossing tool or the component that molds the tape pocket during populati
Lehner Rudolf
Paulus Stefan
Durand Paul
Greenberg Laurence A.
Infineon - Technologies AG
Locher Ralph E.
Rada Rinaldi
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