Material or article handling – Device for emptying portable receptacle – Nongravity type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-20
2002-04-30
Bollinger, David H. (Department: 3651)
Material or article handling
Device for emptying portable receptacle
Nongravity type
C221S025000, C221S073000, C156S583200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06379098
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a chip feeder for conveying a carrier tape, in which electronic chips such as chip resisters, chip capacitors or IC chips are sealed, to supply the chips to a chip mounter.
FIG. 16
shows a chip mounter
1
that automatically mounts the electronic chips on an electronic circuit board
2
. The chip mounter
1
is provided with a first X-table
3
that carries the electronic circuit board
2
, a second X-table
4
on which a plurality of chip feeders
10
are mounted and a placement head
6
that is supported by an arm
5
upon the X-tables
2
and
3
. The first and second X-tables
2
and
3
are movable in an X-direction in a horizontal plane. The placement head
6
moves along a Y-direction that is perpendicular to the X-direction in the horizontal plane and along a Z-direction that is a vertical direction.
The placement head
6
chucks the electronic chip selected from the chips supplied by the chip feeders
10
and places the chucked chip on a predetermined position of the electronic circuit board
2
.
The chip feeder
10
supplies the electronic chips sealed in a carrier tape such that the placement head
6
is able to pick the chips. As shown in
FIGS. 17A and 17B
, a series of emboss portions
21
are formed on the carrier tape
20
along its length, and a series of sprocket holes
22
are formed next to the emboss portions
21
. The emboss portion
21
is a closed-end hollow and the sprocket hole
22
is a through hole. Top openings of the emboss portions
22
are sealed by a top cover tape
23
to prevent drop out of the electronic chips
7
. The carrier tape
20
, which includes the electronic chips
7
and is sealed by the top cover tape
23
, is provided to a user as a warped condition around a reel.
Each of the chip feeders
10
is provided with a tape feeding mechanism
10
A and a cover peeling mechanism
10
B as shown in FIG.
18
. The tape feeding mechanism
10
A is provided with a sprocket
11
that connects the sprocket holes
22
formed on the carrier tape
20
. A worm wheel
12
is coaxially fixed to the sprocket
11
. A DC motor
13
rotates a worm
14
that is connected by a coupling
13
a
, and then the worm
14
rotates the worm wheel
12
with the sprocket
11
. In general, the sprocket
11
includes a ratchet mechanism to keep constant feeding pitch. The cover peeling mechanism
10
B includes a peeling reel
15
to wind the top cover tape
23
and a DC motor
16
to drive the peeling reel
15
. An output axis of the DC motor
16
is connected to a worm
17
through a coupling
16
a
, and a worm wheel
18
a
is connected with the worm
17
. A gear
18
b
that is coaxially fixed to the worm wheel
18
a
meshes with an external gear around the peeling reel
15
.
When the DC motor
13
of the tape feeding mechanism
10
A is driven, the sprocket
11
rotates in the clockwise direction in
FIG. 18
, which transfers the carrier tape
20
in the rightward direction in the drawing. On the other hand, a peeling piece
19
is fixed to a base
10
C of the chip feeder at the upstream from the sprocket
11
along the transmission of the carrier tape
20
. The top cover tape
23
is folded back by the peeling piece
19
to be wound by the peeling reel
15
. Therefore, when the DC motor
16
of the cover peeling mechanism
10
B is driven, the peeling reel
15
rotates in the counterclockwise direction in
FIG. 18
to wind the top cover tape
23
that is peeled from the carrier tape
20
. The DC motors
13
and
16
are controlled to synchronize the feeding of the carrier tape
20
and the peeling of the top cover tape
23
.
Since the number of the chip feeders
10
mounted on the chip mounter
1
corresponds the chip variations contained on the electronic circuit board
2
, the number of the chip feeders
10
increases as the electronic circuit becomes complex. On the other hand, the width of the carrier tape
20
is determined by the packaged chip size. Thus, the width of the chip feeder
10
should not be too large with respect to the width of the carrier tape
20
in order to mount a large number of the chip feeders
10
in the limited mount space. For instance, the chip mounter, in which forty chip feeders are aligned, requires the width equal to or smaller than fifteen millimeters for the individual chip feeder.
However, the conventional chip feeder
10
is difficult to reduce the width because of the spindle type DC motors
13
and
16
. Necessary rotation torque for the feeding and the peeling limits miniaturization of the DC motors. When the DC motor is arranged such that the spindle is perpendicular to the width direction as shown in
FIG. 18
, the diameter of the DC motor determines the width of the chip feeder, which avoids decreasing the width of the chip feeder. On the other hand, when the spindle is parallel to the width direction, the width is determined by the length of the motor body and the projected spindle, which also avoids decreasing the width of the chip feeder.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a chip feeder for chip mounter, which is capable of decreasing a size in the width direction.
For the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an improved chip feeder, which includes: a tape feeding mechanism for feeding a carrier tape that further includes a rotating connection member for connecting the carrier tape, a first motor for driving the rotating connection member and a first transmission mechanism for transmitting drive power of the first motor to the rotating connection member, and a cover peeling mechanism for peeling a top cover tape from the carrier tape that further includes a peeling reel for winding the top cover tape, a second motor for driving the peeling reel and a second transmission mechanism for transmitting drive power of the second motor to the peeling reel. The first and second motors are outer rotor motors each of which includes a cylindrical stator fixed to a base at an axial center side having exciter coils and pole pieces magnetized by the exciter coils, and a cylindrical rotor arranged around the stator with a predetermined gap, and the first and second transmission mechanisms are engaged with outer surfaces of the rotors.
With this construction, the first and second motors are outer rotor motors, which allows the reduction of the thickness of the motor portions, decreasing the width of the chip feeder.
The rotating connection member may comprise a sprocket that connects sprocket holes formed on the carrier tape.
Each of the rotors may include a cylindrical permanent magnet whose pole varies along the circumferential direction and a back yoke fixed around the permanent magnet. In such a case, the first and second transmission mechanisms engage the outer surfaces of the back yokes.
The second transmission mechanism preferably includes at least three orbital rollers that externally contact the rotor of the second motor, a pulley that externally contacts the orbital rollers and rotates around an coaxial axis with the rotor, and at least three holding rollers that externally contact the pulley and are rotatably supported by the base. In such a case, the second transmission mechanism transmits rotation of the pulley to the peeling reel.
The peeling reel may form a single-piece construction with the pulley or the peeling reel may be linked with the pulley through a reduction mechanism. The reduction mechanism includes, for example, a first internal gear formed on an internal surface of an extending portion of the pulley extended in an axial direction, at least three small-diameter idle gears that are rotatably supported by the base to engage with the first internal gear, a center gear that engages with the idle gears to be rotated around the coaxial axis with the rotor, a sun gear that forms a single-piece construction with the center gear while keeping a predetermined distance from the center gear in the axial direction, a second internal gear formed on an internal surface of a cylindric
Bollinger David H.
Bower Kenneth W
Japan Servo Co. Ltd.
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