Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-10
2001-09-18
Arbes, Carl J. (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
C029S740000, C029S833000, C029S564100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289582
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a component mounting method and a component mounting apparatus for stably feeding a plurality of types of electronic components to be mounted onto circuit boards and for performing the mounting of a plurality of types of electronic components onto one circuit board in the shortest time.
BACKGROUND ART
A conventional component mounting apparatus and a conventional component mounting method using the component mounting apparatus are described.
As shown in
FIG. 3B
, a component mounting apparatus
30
generally comprises: a rotating table
7
; an X-Y table
3
; a component feeder
4
; a component feed section
5
to which the component feeder
4
is removably equipped; a rotating-table driver
8
for driving the rotating table
7
; a table driver
9
for driving the X-Y table
3
; a component-feeding-section driver
10
for driving the component feed section
4
; and a component-mounting controller
20
for performing operational control of drivers
8
,
9
,
10
.
The rotating table
7
, of which a table body
7
a
will not move, has suction nozzles
2
which move on a move path along the periphery of the table body
7
a
and which serve for mounting electronic components
11
onto a printed board
1
. The suction nozzles
2
are moved by the rotating-table driver
8
between a component holding position which is one place on the move path and at which the holding of an electronic component
11
is performed, and a hold releasing position which is another place on the move path and at which the holding of the component is released. Moreover, the suction nozzles
2
will move up and down to suck up and mount electronic components. The X-Y table
3
, which is located below the rotating table
7
, has the printed board
1
placed thereon. Then, for the mounting of an electronic component
11
(which has been transferred to the hold releasing position by a suction nozzle
2
) on to the printed board
1
at a component mounting position, the X-Y table
3
moves the printed board
1
so that the component mounting position and the hold releasing position coincide with each other. It is noted that the X-Y table
3
is moved by the table driver
9
in X and Y directions as shown in the figure. The component feeder
4
has a plurality of component accommodating units
4
a
for accommodating therein a plurality of types of electronic components
11
, respectively. The accommodating units
4
a
are arrayed along the component feed section
5
in a Z direction, as shown in the figure, corresponding to the direction in which the component feeder
4
is moved. The component feeder
4
of such arrangement is moved in the Z direction by the driver
10
so that the electronic component
11
to be mounted is positioned at the component holding position. It is noted that the X, Y and Z directions are within the same plane and that the X and Z directions are parallel to each other.
In the component mounting apparatus
30
as described above, the electronic component
11
is taken out from the component feed unit
4
a
at the component holding position by the suction nozzle
2
, and during the transfer to the hold releasing position, the posture of the electronic component
11
is detected by a recognizer
6
. Then, based on the detection result, the electronic component
11
during transfer is corrected in position, and transferred to the hold releasing position. Meanwhile, the X-Y table
3
moves in the X, Y directions so that the component mounting position on the printed board
1
at which the electronic component
11
is to be mounted becomes coincident with the hold releasing position. Accordingly, at the hold releasing position, the suction nozzle
2
mounts the electronic component
11
at the component mounting position on the printed board
1
. Further, the printed board
1
is also positionally corrected, as required, by detecting a mark provided on the printed board
1
with the recognizer
6
.
Indeed, occurrence of errors in such a component mounting apparatus
30
have been on the decrease with the technical progress of the mounting equipment. However, for the exhaustion of electronic components to be mounted or the occurrence of errors, it has been the case that the operator takes measures of electronic component replenishment or error cancellation upon each occurrence of an error, or of feeding components by the component feeding method as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 60-206098 or No. 62-21300, by which the production of circuit boards is continued.
Next, the arraying of the electronic components
11
onto the component feeder
4
as well as the decision of a mounting sequence according to the prior art are described with reference to
FIGS. 4 and 5
. For example, as shown in
FIG. 4
, assume that 3 pieces of electronic components A, 2 pieces of electronic components B and 1 piece of electronic components C are to be mounted onto the printed board
1
. In such a case, according to a flow chart as shown in
FIG. 5
, first at Step (represented by “S” in the figure)
1
, electronic components are classified into groups according to mounting cycle time, which is the time necessary from when one electronic component is taken out from the component feeder
4
until it is mounted onto the printed board
1
. Thus, the electronic components are classified into groups having the same mounting cycle time, respectively, and then the groups, are put into an ascending order of the mounting cycle times. In this example, the electronic components A and B have a mounting cycle time of 0.1 second, and the electronic components C have a mounting cycle time of 0.2 second, so that the resulting order of array is A→B→C.
Subsequently at Step
2
, based on the processing of Step
1
, it is decided which electronic components are placed at the individual component accommodating units
4
a
located at Z
1
, Z
2
, . . . in the component feeder
4
. In this example, the electronic components A are placed at Z
1
, the electronic components B are placed at Z
2
and the electronic components C are placed at Z
3
.
Subsequently at Step
3
, an optimization of the mounting sequence is executed based on the processing of Step
2
, by which the mounting sequence is decided. In this example, the mounting operation is carried out in a sequence as indicated by arrows within the printed board
1
as shown in FIG.
4
. That is, the electronic components A are mounted in an order of a component mounting position N
1
to a component mounting position N
2
to a component mounting position N
3
, respectively. Then electronic components B are mounted in an order of a component mounting position N
4
to a component mounting position N
5
, respectively. Finally, an electronic component C is mounted to a component mounting position N
6
.
The placement of electronic components onto the component feeder
4
as well as the mounting sequence of the electronic components according to the prior art have been determined by such method and procedure as described above. In the above example, the electronic components A set in the Z
1
component accommodating unit include 3 pieces, the electronic components B set in the Z
2
component accommodating unit include 2 pieces and the electronic component C set in the Z
3
component accommodating unit includes 1 piece.
In addition, the operations of Steps
1
to
3
are carried out by the component-mounting controller
20
executing arithmetic operations with the feed of information as to the types of electronic components to be mounted. In other words, controller
20
uses information on the electronic components A, B, C as well as information on the quantities of the individual types of electronic components to be mounted in this example. Information as to the mounting cycle time may be previously stored in the component-mounting controller
20
for each type of electronic component, or otherwise the information may be fed from time to time as required.
However, with the conventional method as described above, t
Kuribayashi Takeshi
Maenishi Yasuhiro
Arbes Carl J.
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Wenderoth , Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
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