Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to assemble electrical device
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-15
2002-08-27
Bryant, David P. (Department: 3726)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to assemble electrical device
C029S744000, C029S407040, C029S729000, C029S719000, C029S743000, C324S758010, C382S145000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06438822
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for examining a position of at least one board-support pin which is positioned on a board-support base for supporting a printed-circuit board under a back surface thereof, and a method and an apparatus for positioning at least one board-support pin on a board-support base.
2. Related Art Statement
It is widely practiced to produce an electric circuit by mounting electric components (ECs, e.g., electronic components) on a printed-circuit board (PCB). When the ECs are mounted on the PCB, at least one support member is used to support the PCB under a back surface thereof so as to prevent the PCB from sagging down. In the case where one or more ECs have already been mounted on the back surface of the PCB, the PCB can be supported at only limited portions of the back surface of the PCB. In this case, the PCB is supported, under the back surface thereof, by a free end of at least one board-support pin. To support the PCB at one or more limited portions of the back surface of the PCB, it is required to position the board-support pin at an arbitrary position on a board-support base. There is known a board supporting device which can do it.
However, if the position of the board-support pin positioned on the board-support base by the board supporting device is not appropriate, the board-support pin may support the PCB at a portion of the back surface of the PCB on which one or more ECs have been mounted. The inappropriate positioning of the board-support pin may cause a problem that the board-support pin interferes with at least one EC mounted on the back surface of the PCB. Therefore, it is needed to examine whether the actual position of the board-support pin is appropriate or not, after the board-support pin is positioned on the board-support base. Conventionally, this examination is done by an operator. Accordingly, the examination takes a lot of time, and cannot enjoy high accuracy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for speedily and reliably examining whether a position of at least one board-support pin on a board-support base is appropriate.
The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for examining a position of at least one board-support pin on a board-support base, and a method and an apparatus for positioning at least one board-support pin on a board-support base which respectively include the aforesaid method and apparatus for examining a position of the board-support pin. The invention methods and apparatuses have one or more of technical features which are described below in respective paragraphs given parenthesized sequential numbers (1) to (21). Any technical feature which includes another technical feature shall do so by referring, at the beginning, to the parentiesized sequential number given to the technical feature. Thus, two or more of the following technical features may be combined, if appropriate. Each technical feature may be accompanied by a supplemental explanation, as needed.
(1) According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided a method of examining a position of at least one board-support pin which is positioned on a board-support base for supporting a printed-circuit board under a back surface thereof, the method comprising the steps of: taking an image of the board-support pin, at a position opposed to a free end of the pin; judging whether the position of the board-support pin is appropriate, based on the taken image; and producing judgment information indicative of a result of the judgment. In the present method, the position of the board-support pin is detected by taking the image of the board-support pin, the judgment of whether the position of the board-support pin is appropriate is automatically made, and the judgment information indicative of the result of the judgment is produced. The examination according to the present method is done more speedily and more accurately in comparison with a case where an operator examines the position of the board-support pin. As described below, the judgment information may be displayed on a display device so that the operator can recognize the result of the judgment, and/or may be supplied to a pin-position correcting device so that the pin-position correcting device automatically corrects the position of the board-support pin.
(2) According to a second feature of the present invention which includes the first feature (1), the method further comprises a step of displaying the judgment information on a display device so that an operator recognizes the judgment information. According to the judgment information displayed on the display device, the operator can recognize that the board-support pin is positioned at an inappropriate position, and correct the inappropriate position of the board-support pin. The judgment information may include the direction and amount of dislocation of the inappropriate position of the board-support pin from a reference position of the pin, in addition to the result of the judgment. In accordance with the judgment information displayed on the display device, the operator can more easily correct the inappropriate position of the board-support pin.
(3) According to a third feature of the present invention which includes the first or second feature (1) or (2), the method further comprises a step of supplying the judgment information to a pin-position correcting device so that the pin-position correcting device automatically corrects the position of the board-support pin, based on the judgment information. In this case, the inappropriate position of the board-support pin is automatically corrected by the pin-position correcting device, whereby the operator's load is further reduced.
(4) According to a fourth feature of the present invention which includes any one of the first to third features (1) to (3), the step of taking the image of the board-support pin comprises taking the image of the board-support pin, with an image taking device which is for taking an image of each of a plurality of reference board marks provided on the printed-circuit board so as to detect a position of the printed-circuit board. In the present method, the image taking device is used for taking the image of the board-support pin in addition to the image of each of the reference board marks. Thus, the present method can be performed using an apparatus which can be produced at low cost. Generally, a plurality of reference board marks are provided at a plurality of positions being apart from one another on a PCB, so that the position of the PCB may be accurately detected. Similarly, a plurality of board-support pins may be positioned at a plurality of positions being apart from one another on the board-support base. Therefore, it is needed to move the image taking device relative to the PCB in a direction parallel to the PCB. Since the image taking device is used for taking both the image of the board-support pin and the image of each of the reference board marks, a single moving device for moving one of the image taking device and the PCB relative to the other of the image taking device and the PCB can also be used for taking both of the images. The use of the single moving device further reduces the production cost of the apparatus.
(5) According to a fifth feature of the present invention which includes any one of the first to fourth features (1) to (4), a reference pin mark is provided on a free-end surface of the board-support pin, the free-end surface provides a board-support surface for supporting the printed-circuit board, and the step of taking the image of the board-support pin comprises taking an image of the reference pin mark. In the case where the free-end surface of the board-support pin is relatively small, an image of the free-end surface itself may be taken as the image of the board-support pin. On the other hand, in the case where the free-end surface of the pin is rela
Bryant David P.
Fuji Machine Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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