Chip feeder and chip feeding system

Details Chip feeder and chip feeding system Chip feeder and chip feeding system

2000-02-03

2001-12-25

Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3652)

Article dispensing

With means to agitate, vibrate or jar articles in supply...

C221S086000, C221S190000, C221S202000, C221S254000, C222S564000, C366S193000, C366S341000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06332558

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chip feeder and a chip supplying system and particularly to the art of preventing chips from being damaged.
2. Related Art Statement
A chip feeder is used for, e.g., supplying electric components (“ECs”) in the form of chips, to an electric-component (“EC”) mounting system. A chip feeder known as a “bulk” feeder stores a number of “leadless” ECs that have no lead wires, in a loose state, i.e., in bulk in a case thereof, and supplies the ECs, one by one, from an EC-supply portion thereof. There is known an EC supplying system which includes (a) a plurality of bulk feeders which are provided on a table such that respective EC-supply portions of the bulk feeders are arranged along a line (e.g., a straight line, or a curved line such as an arc); and (b) a table moving device which moves the table in a direction parallel to the above line, to position sequentially the respective EC-supply portions of the bulk feeders at a predetermined EC-supply position.
However, the above-indicated EC supplying system has a problem that when the table starts, or stops, moving, the EC chips move, in the case, like a wave because of inertia and may be damaged. The EC chips present in a lower portion of the mass of EC chips stored in bulk in the case are engaged with one another and accordingly can hardly move. On the other hand, the EC chips present in an upper portion of the mass of EC chips can easily move so that the EC chips may collide with one another or the walls of the case, or may be subjected to friction with one another. Thus, the EC chips may be damaged. For example, the surfaces of electrodes of an EC chip may be blackened, which lowers the wettability of the electrodes that is important when the EC chip is soldered to a circuit substrate such as a printed circuit board. Thus, the soldering of the EC ship to the circuit substrate may fail.
In the above-indicated background, it has been practiced that one or more partition plates are provided in the case to part an inner space of the case into a plurality of narrow rooms with respect to a direction parallel to the direction of movement of the table. With the partition plates, the movement of the EC chips in the case can be limited, without having to decreasing the overall width of the inner space of the case (i.e., the dimension of the inner space in the direction parallel to the direction of movement of the table). In the case, the EC chips are stored in the narrow room defined by, and between, each pair of adjacent partition plates, or one partition plate and its adjacent wall surface of the case, so that the movement of the EC chips is effectively limited. Thus, even if the EC chips may move because of inertia, the maximum velocity or kinetic energy of the EC chips can be decreased, so that the EC chips may be prevented from being damaged because of collision with one another or the walls of the case.
However, there are some cases where the damaging of EC chips cannot be effectively prevented even though one or more partition plates may be provided in the case. With the partition plates, the inner space of the case is parted into a plurality of rooms. However, if the case has only a single outlet through which the EC chips are discharged, the case needs a communication passage which communicates the plurality of rooms with each other and which permits all the EC chips to be moved to one of the rooms that communicates with the outlet and be discharged through the outlet. To this end, each of the partition plates is formed with an opening which communicates the two rooms on both sides of the each plate, with each other. However, the opening of each partition plate cannot limit the movement of the EC chips, so that when the table moves, the EC chips may collide, with a great kinetic energy, with one another or the walls of the case, or may be subjected to friction with one another. This may lead to damaging so heavily the EC chips, e.g., blackening the electrodes of the EC chips, that the soldering of the EC chips may fail.
While the foregoing explanation relates to EC chips, chips other than ECs may be damaged for the same reason as described above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a chip feeder and a chip supplying system which have 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 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. However, the following technical features and the appropriate combinations thereof are just examples to which the present invention is by no means limited.
(1) According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided a chip feeder for feeding chips stored in bulk in a case thereof, one by one, from a chip-supply portion thereof, the chip feeder comprising at least one partition plate which parts a space in the case into a plurality of rooms, the partition plate having an opening which extends in a direction intersecting a horizontal plane and which communicates the respective rooms on both sides of the partition plate, with each other; at least one movable partition member which extends across the opening of the at least one partition plate and which is movable relative to the opening in the direction intersecting the horizontal plane; and a movable-partition-member control device which controls the movable partition member so that a lower portion of the movable partition member sinks in an upper portion of a mass of the chips stored in bulk in the case and an upper portion of the movable partition member projects upward from the mass of the chips. The chips are not limited to “leadless” ECs and may be various chips for various uses and applications, such as parts of a machine. Since the space in the case is parted by the partition plate into a plurality of rooms, many chips cannot move a great distance even if the chip feeder may be accelerated or decelerated and the upper portion of the mass of chips stored in bulk in the case may move like a wave. Though the two rooms on both sides of the partition plate communicate with each other via the opening and some chips can move between the two rooms via the opening, the chips in the upper portion of the mass of chips are effectively prevented from moving by the movable partition member, and accordingly those chips cannot move a great distance like the chips that are not aligned with the opening. Since the lower portion of the movable partition member sinks in the upper portion of the mass of chips and the upper portion of the same projects from the mass of chips, the movable partition member can prevent the movement of the chips present in a portion of the mass of chips that corresponds to the depth of sinking of the movable partition member in the mass of chips. Thus, each chip cannot move with a great kinetic energy, so that the each chip is prevented from being damaged by collision with the other chips or the walls of the case. As the chip feeder continues to supply the chips and the level of the upper surface of the mass of chips gradually decreases, the level of the movable partition member also gradually decreases to follow the upper surface of the mass of chips. Thus, even if the number of the chips remaining in the case may decrease, the movable partition member maintains its chip-movement limiting effect. The amount of sinking of the movable partition member in the mass of chips can be so pre-set as to limit effectively the movement of the chips, depending upon the shape, size, and/or specific gravity of the chips. For example, the amount may be set at about one second, two thirds, three fourths, or four fifths of the overall volume of the mova

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