Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to assemble electrical device
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-13
2003-09-30
Arbes, Carl J. (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to assemble electrical device
C029S739000, C029S705000, C248S638000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06625877
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting an electric-component mounter and particularly to the art of reducing the vibration of a floor which supports the electric-component mounter.
2. Related Art Statement
There is known an electric-component (“EC”) mounter which includes a circuit-substrate (“CS”) supporting device, an EC supplying device, and an EC mounting device. Those devices are supported on a common base member which is provided on the surface of a floor. The EC mounting device receives, from the EC supplying device, ECs (e.g., electronic components) as elements of an electric circuit (e.g., an electronic circuit), and mounts the ECs on a CS (e.g., a printed circuit board) supported by the CS supporting device. In this sort of EC mounter, at least one of the EC mounting device, the CS supporting device, and the EC supplying device includes a movable member which is movable for transferring the ECs supplied from the EC supplying device or mounting the ECs on the CS. Therefore, when the ECs are mounted on the CS, the movable member is a plan view of accelerated and decelerated and accordingly the base member is subjected to vibration. Since the base member is fixedly supported by the floor, almost all the vibrational energy is transmitted to the floor. Thus, not only the base member but also the floor are vibrated. The base member may be fixedly supported by the floor, in such a manner that the floor surface is covered with a leveling sheet formed of steel and the base member is placed on the leveling sheet via a plurality of leveling bolts. In this manner, the level at which the CS is conveyed, and the level at which the EC mounting device and the EC supplying device are provided, can be adjusted. In addition, the plurality of leveling bolts can be contacted with the floor surface at a substantially uniform pressure. Thus, the base member and the floor are connected to each other as if it were a unit. Thus, almost all the vibrational energy is transmitted to the floor.
If a rubber sheet is inserted between the leveling sheet and the floor, the vibrational energy which is transmitted to the floor can be more or less reduced by the elastic deformation of the rubber sheet. However, this reduction is not satisfactory. In a particular case, the frequency of the vibration exerted to the rubber sheet coincides with the natural frequency of the same. In this case, the rubber sheet resonates and the vibration is amplified.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electric-component-mounter supporting apparatus' which reduces the vibration of a floor resulting from the vibration of an electric-component mounter.
The present invention provides an electric-component-mounter supporting apparatus which has one or more of the technical features that are described below in respective paragraphs given parenthesized sequential numbers (1) to (15). Any technical feature which includes another technical feature shall do so by referring, at the beginning, to the parenthesized sequential number given to that 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. However, the following technical features and the appropriate combinations thereof are just examples to which the scope of the present invention is by no means limited.
(1) According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for supporting an electric-component mounter including a substrate supporting device which supports a circuit substrate, an electric-component supplying device which supplies a plurality of electric components to be mounted on the circuit substrate, a mounting device which receives the electric components from the electric-component supplying device and mounts the electric components on the circuit substrate supported by the substrate supporting device, and a base member which supports the substrate supporting device, the electric-component supplying device, and the mounting device, the apparatus comprising at least one elastic member which is provided between the base member and a surface of a floor which supports the base member; and at least one damper which damps vibration of the base member and the floor surface relative to each other, the vibration resulting from elastic deformation of the elastic member. The mounting device may be; one which includes a plurality of electric-component (“EC”) holders which are revolveable around a common axis; and an EC-holder positioning device which sequentially positions the EC holders at at least one predetermined operation position on the locus of revolution of the EC holders. The at least one operation position may include an EC-receive position where the mounting device receives the ECs from the EC supplying device. The EC-holder positioning device may be one which includes a plurality of rotary members which are rotatable about the above-indicated axis line, independent of each other, and which support the plurality of EC holders, respectively, at respective equal radial distances from the common axis; and a rotary-motion applying device which applies a rotary motion to each of the rotary members such that each of the rotary members is fully rotated by 360 degrees about the common axis while being stopped at least one time during its full rotation and having a predetermined time difference from each of its preceding and following rotary members. Otherwise, the EC-holder positioning device may be one which includes an intermittent-rotation body which is intermittently rotatable about the above-indicated common axis and which supports the plurality of EC holders at respective equal radial distances from the common axis; and a rotating device which intermittently rotates the intermittent-rotation body at the same angular pitch as that at which the EC holders are equiangularly spaced from each other about the common axis. The intermittent-rotation body which is rotated while supporting the EC holders may be replaced with a rotatable body which is rotatable by any desired angle in each of opposite directions. The mounting device may be one which includes at least one EC holder; and a movable member which supports the at least one EC holder and which is linearly movable in at least one of two directions perpendicular to each other on a plane. The mounting device may be one which is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/977,662 assigned to the Assignee of the present application, i.e. one which includes a plurality of EC holders; the above-indicated, second EC-holder positioning device; and a movable member which supports the EC holders and the EC-holder positioning device and which is linearly movable in at least one of two directions perpendicular to each other on a plane. The substrate supporting device may be selected from various sorts of devices such as a device which supports and moves the circuit substrate, or a device which positions and supports the circuit substrate but does not move the same. The EC supplying device may be selected from various sorts of devices such as a movable device which stores the ECs and is movable, or a stationary device which stores the ECs but is not movable. Even if the EC mounter may vibrate when mounting the ECs on the circuit substrate, the elastic deformation of the elastic member permits the base member to move relative to the floor surface, so that the vibration of the EC mounter is prevented from being transmitted to the floor. In addition, the damper damps the relative vibration of the base member and the floor. Since the damper is provided between the base member and the floor, a portion of the vibration of the base member is damped by the damper whereas another portion of the vibration is transmitted to the floor via the damper. However, this portion is much smaller than the vibration which is transmitted to the floor in the case w
Enomoto Takao
Suhara Shinsuke
Arbes Carl J.
Fuji Machine Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Phan Tim
LandOfFree
Apparatus for supporting electric-component mounter does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus for supporting electric-component mounter, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus for supporting electric-component mounter will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3088114