Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Product assembly or manufacturing
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-19
2004-02-03
Picard, Leo (Department: 2125)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Product assembly or manufacturing
C700S099000, C700S107000, C705S007380, C705S022000, C705S028000, C707S964000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06687557
ABSTRACT:
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
None
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is related to electronic product description transfer between a trading partner that designs a product and a trading partner that manufactures the product and more particularly to the organization and use of a catalog of component information used in the generation of process documents and programs to adapt an assembly process to assemble the product as specified in the electronic product description.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the present invention, a consolidated component catalog provides the information for a component used in the assembly of a product in two sections: an assembly process independent section and an assembly process dependent section. The assembly process independent information is used to correct and validate the product description information. The assembly process dependent information is used to generate the programs and documents to adapt an assembly process to assemble the product described in the product description. A component is identified using a part number from a part number system in the product description and the consolidated component catalog. Another product description using the same component may identify the component with a second part number from a second part number system. The consolidated component catalog relates the first part number and second part number to the component so that redundant component information is not created.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Products Assembled from Components
In the electronics industry, many companies, called Original Equipment Manufactures or OEM, design and develop products that are manufactured by assembling components using an assembly process. Electronic printed circuit cards are an example of products assembled from components where components such as resistors, capacitors, integrated circuits, microprocessors, memory, and connectors are soldered to a printed circuit substrate to assemble the printed circuit card. Each component must be placed onto the printed circuit substrate with high precision and a typical printed circuit card may contain several hundred to several thousand components. The assembly process may use automated equipment to place components and other automated equipment to test that the printed circuit card was assembled correctly. Some of the automated equipment is designed to assemble a specific product. However, most of the automated equipment are programmable and may be adapted to assemble most printed circuit cards. Companies like Fuji, Panasonic, Universal, and others provide a wide variety of equipment that performs the component placement steps to assemble a printed circuit card. Each type of equipment has characteristics that make it ideal for particular modes of use. For example, some component placement equipment is designed for high volume production but takes time to change from one product to another. Other component placement equipment is designed for rapid change from one product to another but has a placement rate much lower than the high volume machine. Hewlett Packard, Gen Rad and others provide a wide variety of equipment to test that the correct components were placed and that the electronic circuits function. There are a large number of assembly and test equipment suppliers and the variety of equipment is large. Assembly and test equipment are grouped together to form an assembly process where the combined capabilities of the equipment perform the steps to assemble and test the product. The equipment can be adapted to assemble a product based on a description of the product. Products assembled from components are not limited to electronic printed circuit cards. Products fabricated from sheet metal are assembled using equipment adapted to produce the metal components that are then assembled to produce the product. Petrol-chemical products may be produced using chemical process lines with equipment that are programmed to produce specific products.
To adapt an assembly process to assemble a specific electronic printed circuit card product, each piece of assembly equipment must be programmed to position the printed circuit substrate and to place each component or to test each circuit to validate correct assembly. Some of the assembly operations may include manual process steps that require detailed assembly drawings and instructions for the assembly operators. In the past, the generation of programs for the equipment and documents for the assembly process was done manually. In the past 10 years, companies like FabMaster and Unicam (both are now part of Tecnomatix-Unicam) developed and market software that take the Computer Aided Design file or CAD file that describes the printed circuit substrate and the position of each component, and the Bill of Material file or BoM file that describes the quantity and specific components of an electronic printed circuit card and from these files, a program generates the programs and documents to assemble the electronic card from the set of components. These programs are usually called Computer Aided Manufacturing programs or CAM programs. For a CAM program, the CAD and BoM files provide a complete description of a product. In addition, the CAM programs require information about each component such as precise component shape and dimensions, input and output pin assignments, carrier type, rotation position on the carrier, etc. as well as key characteristics of each automatic assembly equipment for which a program is to be generated. The CAM programs can also generate programs and documents to test the electronic printed circuit card. Additional information about each component such as resistance, capacitance, etc. is required to generate the tester program and documents. Some of this information is not provided by the component manufacturer and is derived from observations of the component tested in a printed circuit card. The CAM programs have data structures, called component catalogs, which may be used to store the component information. These data structures use the component part number to reference the information.
The part number system is the core of the product description for a company that designs and develops products since it provides the identification structure so that each component, product, etc. has a unique identifier. Each company has a self-consistent part number system. That is, each distinct component or item has a distinct part number that can be used to identify it. Two different components do not have the same part number. However, the part number system of two different companies may not be consistent with each other. A part number for a component in one company may be meaningless or assigned to a different component in another company. The Bill of Material provides an important part of the recipe to produce the product: the list of components and quantities of each component; the list is described in terms of part numbers. Suppliers provide some of the components. The Approved Manufacturer List, AML, provides the cross reference of a company's part numbers to a supplier's part number. The CAD describes the physical relationship of all of the components, usually as a set of drawings with each component labeled with its corresponding part number.
Many of the components are purchased from suppliers and the suppliers provide most, if not all, of the information required to place the component on the printed circuit substrate. The suppliers also provide much of the information for testing the component once assembled in the printed circuit card. The CAD file identifies that a component identified by its part number is to be placed at a specific location on the printed circuit substrate. The part number is used to identify the component in the BoM file. The part number is also used to identify the supplier and supplier part number in the AML so that the component parameters may be obtained from the supplier. The specific component parameters may depend on the characteristics of
Kasenge Charles
Picard Leo
LandOfFree
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