Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Unit load conveying surface means moved about an endless or...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-01
2001-02-06
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Unit load conveying surface means moved about an endless or...
C198S867080
Reexamination Certificate
active
06182819
ABSTRACT:
The present invention refers to an article carrier with adjustable support elements for receiving thereon articles of different sizes, in particular for supporting printed circuit boards of different sizes during transport through a reflow soldering system, comprising a frame means, especially one frame member of said frame means being used as a support for an article to be carried, and at least one additional supporting element which is adapted to be adjusted relative to the frame member. In addition, the present invention refers to a reflow soldering system used for carrying out a reflow soldering process at printed circuit boards provided with electronic components, said reflow soldering system comprising an article carrier system.
Reflow soldering systems by means of which electronic components premounted on printed circuit boards are soldered and thus electrically connected to a wiring scheme on the printed circuit board under the influence of heat are generally known in the prior art. In such reflow soldering systems, it is necessary to transport the articles, i.e. the printed circuit boards, through a comparatively long system with different zones, viz. A preheating zone, a main heating zone, a cooling zone and a discharge area. The printed circuit boards are moved through these zones on an article carrier by means of a transport mechanism, e.g. a conveying chain or a link belt driven by the system.
Such a reflow soldering system is an acquisition necessitating a very high investment. Hence, it goes without saying that it is necessary that such a system is suitable for more than one specific size of printed circuit boards. For treating printed circuit boards of various sizes in such a reflow soldering system, it has hitherto been common practice to replace the article carrier by an article carrier adapted to the size of the printed circuit boards to be processed at the time in question. This required, on the one hand, the provision of a comparatively large supply of suitable article carriers for the respective sizes of the printed circuit boards to be processed; on the other hand, complicated and time-consuming manipulations by an operator were necessary for exchanging the article carriers upon changing from one size of printed circuit boards to a new one.
Even if stocks of many different article carriers were kept in supply, it was only possible to process standard sizes of printed circuit boards to which the article carriers were adapted. Specially manufactured printed circuit boards could not be transported through such a reflow soldering system. For solving this problem, the individual article carriers had to be modified or adapted by hand by an operator.
However, any intervention on the part of the operator in the operation of a reflow soldering system results in a drastic decrease of the efficiency of the throughput through the system, and, in connection with the high acquisition cost of a reflow soldering system, this results in a significant problem of costs.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide an article carrier of the type mentioned at the start by means of which the article carrier can easily be adjusted to different sizes of printed circuit boards, which may perhaps also deviate from a standard size.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a reflow soldering system of the type mentioned at the start, which makes use of such an article carrier and by means of which an adaptation of the article carrier to the size of a printed circuit board to be processed can be carried out mechanically, i.e. by machine.
According to the present invention, the first object is achieved by an article carrier with adjustable support elements for receiving thereon articles of different sizes, in particular for supporting printed circuit boards of different sizes during transport through a reflow soldering system, comprising a frame means, especially one frame member of said frame means being used as a support for an article to be carried, and at least one additional supporting element which is adapted to be adjusted relative to the frame member, wherein arresting means are provided with the aid of which the supporting element can be arrested relative to the frame member, said arresting means being adapted to be releasably arrested on a guide means along which the supporting element is displaceable.
With the aid of the arresting means, the supporting element can be fixed relative to the frame member reliably and permanently. A time-consuming modification of the article carrier, which has hitherto been necessary according to the prior art and after which the article carrier was incorporated into the transport mechanism of the reflow soldering system, is no longer necessary when the system according to the present invention is used. The article carrier need not be removed from its position in the transport system of the reflow soldering system when the adaptation to the printed board to be transported at the time in question is carried out by releasing the locking engagement, displacing the supporting element and reestablishing the locking engagement. The article carrier according to the present invention has the additional advantage that an adaptation can be carried out mechanically by a reflow soldering system. The downtimes of the machine, which have hitherto been necessary due to the intervention on the part of the operator for adapting the article carrier to the size of the printed board, are thus eliminated. The efficiency and the overall performance of the machine that can be achieved in this way are higher than those that could be achieved according to the prior art.
In accordance with an advantageous further development, the arresting means permit a stepless fine adjustment for adjusting the positions which the supporting element and the frame member, on which the printed circuit boards are supported, occupy relative to one another.
In accordance with another advantageous further development of the present invention, the arresting system comprises clamping means with the aid of which it is possible to carry out a stepless fine adjustment of the position of the supporting element relative to the frame member acting as an additional support.
According to another advantageous further development, the clamping means is realized in that the clamping elements comprise at least one clamping plate, which is articulated on a body and provided with an opening through which a profile of a rail extends at least partially, and respective biasing means with the aid of which the clamping plate(s) articulated on the body is (are) deflected until it (they) abut(s) in the area of the opening on the profile of the rail.
This permits a particularly simple, but mechanically reliable stepless adjustment, which is easy to execute and which results in a fixing of the supporting element that is extremely reliable for the present purposes. In particular, this structural design of the clamping element permits a very simple mechanical adjustment operation, since, for the purpose of delocking, it is only necessary to press the clamping plates onto the body in a direction opposite to the biasing force. This can be realized e.g. by means of a simple gripping element or a fork, which is provided in the reflow soldering system such that it is movable along the clamping plates and displaceable in the direction of adjustment. This solution is very simple from the mechanical point of view and, consequently, it is very advantageous as far as costs are concerned.
In accordance with a further advantageous embodiment, the article carrier is provided with a vertically adjustable centre support. On the one hand, this centre support prevents the printed board from being deformed due to its gravitational force when exposed to the high temperatures which are required for carrying out the reflow process, on the other hand the vertical adjustability permits an exact adaptation to the kind of printed circuit board to be processed.
The second above-mentioned object is achieve
Deuble Mark A.
Ellis Christopher P.
Fields and Johnson, P.C.
Rehm Anlagenbau GmbH + Co.
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