Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Reexamination Certificate
1997-09-15
2001-05-15
Young, Lee (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
C029S743000, C294S064200, C414S737000, C901S040000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06230398
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic parts mounting machine and an electronic parts packaging method for mounting electronic parts on a printed circuit board.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In electronic parts packaging machines which have heretofore been employed, a variety of electronic parts have to be tested for lead misalignment and then mounted in such a manner as to ensure high quality.
An example of a conventional electronic parts mounting machine will now be described with reference to FIG.
5
.
In
FIG. 5
, the numeral
1
denotes a circuit board on which an electronic part
10
is to be mounted, and
2
denotes a pair of rails for carrying in and out the circuit board
1
. The numeral
3
denotes parts feeding sections each comprising feeding means disposed in parallel, said parts feeding sections being fixedly disposed on opposite sides of the rails
2
. The numeral
4
denotes a mounting head having a suction nozzle
5
for sucking the electronic part
10
and is vertically movable. This mounting head
4
is driven for positioning by an XY robot
6
in two directions, X-direction and Y-direction, which are orthogonal to each other in a horizontal plane.
Further, the electronic parts mounting machine is equipped with a recognition camera
7
for photographing the electronic part
10
sucked by the suction nozzle
5
. The position at which the electronic part
10
is sucked by the suction nozzle
5
is measured by this recognition camera
7
, it being arranged so that the latter takes in the image data for calculating the positional corrected amount to be later described. The numeral
8
denotes a lead misalignment tester for testing lead-equipped electronic parts for the misaligned state of their leads by a laser beam. The numeral
9
denotes a controller for the entire electronic parts mounting machine.
The operation of this electronic parts mounting machine will now be described. The circuit board
1
is carried in by the rails
2
and positioned and held at a predetermined electronic parts mounting position. The mounting head
4
is moved by the XY robot
6
to the parts feeding section
3
where electronic parts
10
have been stored, whereupon the mounting head
4
equipped with the suction nozzle
5
is lowered to suck an electronic part
10
.
The mounting head
4
with the electronic part
10
sucked thereby is moved to a place above the recognition camera
7
and positioned there. The recognition camera
7
takes in the image of the electronic part
10
sucked by the section nozzle
5
and measures the position of the electronic part
10
to find the positional corrected amount. Upon completion of this positional correction, the electronic part
10
is moved by the mounting head
4
to the test position in the laser lead misalignment tester
8
. The XY robot
6
is driven in the X- and Y-directions in such a manner that all leads on the individual sides of the electronic part
10
block the test laser irradiating spot (scan spot) of the lead misalignment tester
8
, while the mounting nozzle
5
is rotated. Thereafter, only those electronic parts
10
which have been found normal by the lead misalignment test results are mounted on the circuit board
1
. The circuit board
1
having undergone the mounting operation is carried out by the rails
2
. The sequence described above is controlled by the controller
9
.
With such electronic parts mounting machine of a conventional arrangement, however, lead misalignment tests are conducted by driving the XY robot
6
in the X- or Y-direction such that the individual leads of the electronic part
10
are moved with respect to the scan spot on the lead misalignment tester. For this reason, if the electronic parts mounting machine does not have means, such as the XY robot
6
, for driving in two orthogonal directions, then it is impossible to conduct lead misalignment tests in the case of an electronic parts mounting machine of the rotary head type adapted to mount parts while rotating a plurality of heads
4
.
As an approach to this difficulty, it would be contemplated to conduct lead misalignment tests by moving the test unit of the lead misalignment tester
8
in the X- and Y-directions with the electronic part
10
sucked by the mounting nozzle
5
and fixed in a predetermined position. In this case, the test unit of the lead misalignment tester
8
has to move in two different directions, i.e., X- and Y-directions, and hence errors in movement would be correspondingly increased, leading to a lowering of measurement accuracy, while a larger space has to be allocated for the installation and movement of the test unit of the lead misalignment tester
8
.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is intended to solve the above problems and provide an electronic parts mounting machine and an electronic parts packaging method, wherein even when the equipment does not have driving means, such as an XY robot, for driving the mounting head linearly in two directions along the leads of an electronic part, lead misalignment tests can be conducted without involving a decrease in measurement accuracy or without having to allocate a larger space for the installation and movement of the test unit of the lead misalignment tester.
To solve the above problems, the electronic parts mounting machine of the present invention comprises: a parts feeding section having means for feeding electronic parts; holding means for holding a circuit board having electronic parts mounted thereon; a vertically movable mounting head for sucking and recognizing an electronic part and mounting it on a circuit board; a suction nozzle for sucking electronic parts; a nozzle rotating means for rotating the suction nozzle; a recognition camera for recognizing a sucked electronic part; a lead misalignment tester for testing electronic parts for their lead misalignment; linear driving means for linearly driving the test unit of the lead misalignment tester; and control means for rotating the suction nozzle during lead misalignment test while controlling the linear driving means to ensure that the test point of the test unit scans the leads of an electronic part sucked by the suction nozzle while crossing said leads.
The electronic parts packaging method of the present invention comprises the steps of: sucking an electronic part from a parts feeding section; recognizing and measuring the positional relationship between the suction nozzle and the leads of the electronic part by a recognition camera; rotating, on the basis of the measured data, the suction nozzle with the electronic part sucked thereby while linearly moving the test unit of the lead misalignment tester such that its test point scans the leads of the electronic part sucked by the suction nozzle while crossing said leads, thereby testing electronic parts for their lead misalignment; and mounting only those electronic parts which have been decided to be non-defective at predetermined positions on the circuit board.
According to such electronic parts mounting machine and electronic parts packaging method, lead misalignment tests can be conducted without moving the mounting head, so that lead misalignment tests can be made without requiring driving means, such as an XY robot, for linearly moving the mounting head in two directions.
Further, since the test unit of the lead misalignment tester has only to be moved linearly in one direction, it is possible to obtain higher measurement accuracy than in the case of moving the test unit of the lead misalignment tester linearly in two directions.
Further, the test unit of the lead misalignment tester is linearly moved in one direction in synchronism with the rotation of an electronic part when the latter is being rotated by the suction nozzle. Therefore, in this case it is only necessary to move the test unit of the lead misalignment tester linearly by an amount corresponding to the difference between the arcuate path taken during the rotation of the leads and the path of travel of the test point of the lead, thereby
Inutsuka Ryoji
Murata Kazuhiro
Yabuki Koichi
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Parkhurst & Wendel LLP
Vereene Kevin G.
Young Lee
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