Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to assemble electrical device
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-27
2003-11-25
Arbes, Carl J. (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to assemble electrical device
C029S740000, C029S743000, C414S222050
Reexamination Certificate
active
06651316
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the art of resetting a printed-wiring-board supporting device which supports a printed wiring board (PWB), and particularly relates to the art of shortening a time needed to reset the PWB supporting device. A PWB with electric components (e.g., electronic components) being mounted thereon should be called as a printed circuit board (PCB) but, in the present specification, a PCB is also referred to as a PWB, for avoiding complexity.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Generally, a PWB includes a thin substrate formed of an electrically insulating material such as a synthetic resin, and a circuit pattern formed of an electrically conductive material on the thin substrate. Thus, the PWB has flexibility. Therefore, when electric components (ECs) are mounted on the PWB, or when an adhesive or a creamed solder is applied to the PWB for mounting of ECs, the PWB cannot maintain an accurate flatness, unless a back surface of the PWB is supported at a considerably large number of points.
To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Document No. 7-15189 teaches applying a negative pressure or suction to a PWB and thereby holding the same. More specifically described, the document discloses a PWB holding device including a base plate and a plurality of holding pins. The base plate has a plurality of negative-pressure-supply holes each of which opens in an upper surface thereof and is connected via a negative-pressure passage formed therein to a negative-pressure-supply source. Each of the holding pins includes an elongate pin portion and a container-like seat portion, and the pin portion has a passage which is formed therethrough in an axial direction thereof and is communicated with an inner space of the seat portion. Each holding pin is attached to the upper surface of the base plate, such that a lower-end surface of the seat portion thereof is held in close contact with a portion of the upper surface that surrounds the opening of one negative-pressure-supply hole. In this state, the inner passage of the pin portion is communicated with the negative-pressure-supply hole via the inner space of the seat portion, so that negative pressure is supplied to the inner passage and is applied to a lower or back surface of a PWB to support the same. Thus, the PWB holding device is a PWB supporting device which has the function of sucking and holding a PWB.
The holding pins support the back surface of the PWB that is opposite to the front surface for which an operation, such as mounting of ECs, is performed. However, the holding pins must not engage uneven portions of the back surface of the PWB itself or the ECs mounted on the back surface. Therefore, the holding pins must be engaged with only limited portions of the back surface of the PWB and, depending upon those limited portions of the back surface, the holding pins must be attached to only limited portions of the upper surface of the base plate. Thus, the holding pins are attached to selected ones of the negative-pressure-supply holes of the base plate, and the remaining supply holes to which the holding pins are not attached are closed with respective caps to avoid the leakage of negative pressure.
However, conventionally it is an operator who sets the holding pins on the base plate and attaches the caps to the negative-pressure-supply holes free of the holding pins, and accordingly it takes a long time to reset the PWB holding device. When a current sort of PWBs are changed to a new sort of PWBs for each of which an operation is to be performed, the PWB holding device is reset by moving the holding pins from the current positions to new positions to support the new sort of PWBs. However, this resetting operation needs a long time.
This problem occurs to not only a PWB supporting device which includes holding pins each for applying negative pressure to a PWB and thereby holding the same but also a PWB supporting device which does not have the function of applying negative pressure to a back surface of a PWB and thereby holding the same but includes closing-pins each for supporting, at a support surface thereof, a back surface of a PWB and thereby supporting the same. The latter PWB supporting device does not require the operator to attach caps to negative-pressure-supply holes, but it needs a long time for the operator to set the closing-pins at respective prescribed positions. Thus, it takes a long time to reset the latter PWB supporting device as well.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a PWB-supporting-device resetting apparatus, a PWB-holding-device resetting apparatus, a PWB-relating-operation performing system, and a PWB-supporting-device resetting method that have each feature described below. The following features are described, like claims, in respective paragraphs that are given respective sequential numbers. Any feature that includes another feature shall do so by referring to the number given to the latter feature. However, the following features and the appropriate combinations thereof are just examples to which the technical features, and the combinations thereof, described in the specification are by no means limited. In addition, in the case where one feature recites a plurality of items, it is not essentially required that all of those items be simultaneously employed in the one feature. That is, it is possible to select and employ only a portion (one, two, . . . , but not all) of those items.
(1) According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for automatically resetting a printed-wiring-board supporting device including a supporting table and a plurality of supporting members which are set on a surface of the supporting table to support a back surface of a printed wiring board, the apparatus comprising a supporting member storing device in which the supporting members are stored; a holding head which can hold each of the supporting members; a moving device which moves at least one of the holding head, and each of the supporting table and the storing device, relative to the other of the holding head and the each of the supporting table and the storing device, in at least a direction parallel to the surface of the supporting table, so that the holding head takes a prescribed one of the supporting members from the storing device and sets the one supporting member at a prescribed setting position on the surface of the supporting table, and takes the one supporting member from the setting position and stores the one supporting member in the storing device; and a control device which controls the moving device.
According to this feature, each of the supporting members may be one which has at least the function of supporting the printed wiring board (PWB). Therefore, each supporting member may be either a holding member which supports the PWB while sucking and holding the same, or a simple member which just supports the PWB but does not have the sucking-and-holding function. In the former case, the PWB supporting device can be called a PWB holding device.
The automatic resetting apparatus according to this feature may be provided as part of a PWB-relating-operation performing system which includes an operation performing device that performs an operation for a front surface of a PWB supported by a PWB supporting device, so that the resetting apparatus may automatically reset the PWB supporting device inside the system. Alternatively, the present resetting apparatus may be provided independent of a PWB-relating-operation performing system, so that the resetting apparatus may automatically reset a PWB supporting device outside the system. In the former case, the operation performing device of the system and the automatic resetting apparatus may be supported by a common main frame, and the PWB supporting device may not be detached from the main frame. In the latter case, a main frame of the performing system and a main frame of the resetting apparatus are independent of each other, and the PWB suppor
Isogai Takeyoshi
Iwaki Noriaki
Arbes Carl J.
Fuji Machine Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Trinh Minh
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