Electrical connectors – Coupling part including flexing insulation – Storage strip for a plurality of coupling parts
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-08
2001-06-12
Paumen, Gary F. (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Coupling part including flexing insulation
Storage strip for a plurality of coupling parts
C439S937000, C206S713000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244899
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to assembly line production of circuit boards, and more particularly, to continuous carriers for connectors adapted for soldering to surface mount technology (“SMT”) circuit boards.
Conductive pins and posts have long been used for connecting leads, terminals and electronic components to conductive traces or other devices mounted on printed circuit boards (“PCBs”) and in some cases, for connecting one PCB to an adjacent PCB. In recent years pins and posts have been developed for SMT applications. Pins have been provided with a base or head that is precisely placed on a solder pad by a pick and place machine. Usually multiple-pins are rapidly placed in succession on an SMT cicuit board. After solder re-flow, the upper ends of the pins can be used to attach wires, leads, devices or another PCB in parallel relationship.
Tape and reel supply of small discrete parts such as electrical and mechanical components for automatic pick and place onto a PCB, SMT circuit board or other substrate is widely used in the electronics industry. Examples of pick and place machines are those commercially available from Universal, Panasonic, Fuji and others. Typically the pick and place machines have multiple removable parallel feeders which each support a tape reel carrying a different component. An example of such a feeder is the MPF856 commercially available from Hover-Davis, Inc. In one carrier tape system commercialized by Advantek and 3M a plastic carrier tape with sprocket holes along one or both side edges is embossed to form a series of pockets which each carry a separate component covered by a continuous strip. The carrier tape is unreeled, its cover strip is peeled back, and a pick and place head removes a component from each pocket that is adapted for surface mount or through hole attachment. The component is placed under precise computer control onto a given location on a PCB. The PCB usually has solder paste applied at precise locations which temporarily holds the component in place until solder re-flow. It would be impractical to elongate the pockets sufficiently to receive pins in a vertical orientation. Furthermore, even if the pocket could be drawn deep enough, such an arrangement would not position the head of the pin accurately enough for suction pick-up by the nozzle of the pick and place machine.
The use of hoppers or bins for feeding pins to a conventional pick and place machine is undesirable because of the substantial room that they occupy, their tendency to jam, and difficulties in reliably picking up individual pins with the head of the pick and place machine. It is also not desirable to supply pins to a conventional pick and place machine in individual pockets of a continuous carrier tape due to problems in retrieving the pin in the proper orientation with the head of the pick and place machine for subsequent vertical placement on the SMT circuit board. While the AUTOPAK continuous carrier tape product is well suited for many applications, it does require that the part be over-molded with respect to at least one tape. Such over-molding is not practical with metal pins which are often cold formed. It would therefore be desirable to provide a continuous carrier for pins that would be suited for use in conventional pick and place machines which would not require that the pins be over-molded by the continuous carrier.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a continuous carrier of a plurality of discrete parts each having an axis. A series of part holding segments is continuously molded in side-by-side or end-to-end fashion to provide a strip windable about a reel. At least some of the segments have at least one receptacle that removably holds a corresponding one of the parts so that the part can be inserted and removed in a direction non-parallel to the axis of the part.
The preferred embodiment of our continuous carrier of parts comprises a plurality of discrete SMT pins each having a base and a shaft with a longitudinal axis connected to the base. A consecutive series of identical pin holding segments are arranged in side-by-side or end-to-end fashion to provide a flexible strip windable about a reel. The strip is continuously injection molded of plastic as a plurality of strings each made up of a predetermined number of part holding segments with a forward portion of each string, except for leading string of the strip, being molded over a trailing portion of a preceding string. Each pin holding segment has a receptacle formed by a pair of opposing resilient fingers for frictionally removably holding a shaft of a corresponding SMT pin so that the pin can be inserted and removed in a direction substantially normal to the longitudinal axis of its shaft. Each pin holding segment is configured as a substantially rectangular body spaced from and parallel to an adjacent pin holding segment. At least one shoulder of each body provides a drive surface for engagement by a drive member or sprocket of a feeder for advancing the strip in an automatic pick and place machine.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3841472 (1974-10-01), Fuller et al.
patent: 4418815 (1983-12-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 5775945 (1998-07-01), Biance et al.
patent: 5884773 (1999-03-01), Rudi
patent: 5975952 (1999-11-01), McCartin
patent: 6029814 (2000-02-01), Ohuchi
Bellantoni Peter V.
Bogursky Robert M.
Weber Jerome L.
Autosplice, Inc.
Gushi Ross
Jester Michael H.
Paumen Gary F.
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