Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-11
2001-09-04
Ball, Michael W. (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S275300, C156S275700, C156S290000, C156S378000, C029S603060, C029S407100, C029S464000, C029S740000, C360S100100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06284073
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a core slider mounting apparatus and to a core slider mounting method for mounting a core slider onto a work piece such as a suspension (hereinafter referred to as a “gimbles”) which constitutes a head of a hard disk drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
A robot mounter is a conventionally known apparatus for mounting a core slider of a hard disk drive onto gimbals. The robot mounter fixes the gimbals, which a work, and which have an adhering portion, to a jig disk, and after a dispenser applies an adhesive to the adhering portion of the gimbals, the robot mounter causes chucks on a robot head to vacuum attach and move a core slider from a core slider container.
The core slider is first mounted on a positioning unit to make positioning adjustments, and thereafter vacuum attached by the chucks on the robot head again, and then moved to the adhering portion of the gimbals to which the adhesive has been completely applied, and brought into contact with the adhering portion as vacuum sucked. Then, a spot radiating section radiates UV rays to tentatively cure the adhesive on the adhering portion of the gimbals. Such a robot mounter is of a space-saving cell type.
The that described robot mounter such as above is a semi-automated machine in the sense that a cell-type machine and operator work are performed in cooperation. That is, the operation of fixing the gimbals to the jig disk is performed by an operator through a rotary table for safety purposes, and this face-to-face operation is a completely manual-based operation. Thus, the operation with the robot mounter does involve the presence of an operator inside the clean room
Further, the operation of fixing the gimbals to the jig disk, which is a manually performed operation, requires a certain degree of skill to achieve a desired fixing accuracy.
Further, the operation of fixing the gimbals to the jig disk, which is a manually performed operaion, requires a certain degree of skill to achieve a desire fixing accuracy.
Still further, a predetermined number of steps are involved to maintain the jig disk and the like since their required accuracies are on the order of microns.
Still further, although simple in its design, the robot mounter is not well suited for mass production.
Still further, although the respective processing steps are basically performed continuously, the curing step has to be performed on a separate unit. Thus, there is a limit in improving the cycle time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the aforementioned problems. The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a core slider mounting apparatus and a core slider mount method which can mounting a core slider with high accuracy independently of variations in the manufacture of gimbals and jig disks.
To achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention provides a core slider mount apparatus comprising:
a work piece table for setting a work through a jig disk and moving the work piece to a predetermined position by displacing the work piece in at least one of X- and Y-axis directions and a rotary direction, the work piece having at least one adhering portion;
a dispenser for applying a photocuring adhesive to a predetermined position of the adhering portion of the work piece;
a core slider container for containing at least one core slider that is to be adhered to the adhering portion of the work piece through the adhesive;
a core slider positioner for vacuum sucking the core slider picked up from the core slider container;
a core mount chuck for moving the core slider picked up from the core slider container in a Z-axis direction by clamping or sucking and mounting the core slider onto the adhering portion of the work piece;
a spot radiating section for radiating UV rays onto the adhesive applied by the dispenser;
work piece posture detecting means for detecting a posture of the work set on the work table; and
position correcting means for correcting a positioning error between the adhering portion of the work piece and the core slider based on posture information of the work piece obtained by the work posture detecting means;
the core slider positioner having:
first positioning catches for positioning the core slider picked up from the core slider container by clamping in one of the X-axis direction (and the Y-axis direction;
the core mount chuck having:
second positioning catches for positioning the core slider picked up from the core slider container by clamping in the Y-axis direction (or in the X-axis direction) above the core slider positioner.
A second aspect of the present invention provides a core slider mounting method comprising the steps of:
setting a work on a work piece table through a jig disk;
detecting a posture of the work piece set on the work table;
applying an adhesive to a predetermined position of an adhering portion of the work piece with a dispenser;
sucking a core slider that is to be adhered to the adhering portion of the work piece with a core slider positioner and positioning the core slider by clamping in X- and Y-axis directions with first and second positioning catches;
sucking and moving the core slider with the core slider clamped by the second positioning catches and moving the work piece on the work table below the core slider;
correcting a positioning error between the adhering portion of the work piece and the core slider based on posture information of the work piece obtained in the work posture detecting step; and
tentatively curing the adhesive by radiating UV rays onto the core slider by pushing the core slider onto the adhering portion of the work piece through the adhesive.
A third aspect of the present invention provides a core slider mount apparatus comprising:
a work table for setting a work piece through a jig disk and moving the work piece to a predetermined position while displacing the work piece in X- and Y-axis directions and in a rotary direction, the work piece having at least one adhering portion;
a dispenser for applying a photocuring adhesive to a predetermined position of the adhering portion of the work piece;
a core slider container for containing at least one core slider that is to be adhered to the adhering portion of the work piece through the adhesive;
a core slider positioner for vacuum sucking the core slider picked up from the core slider container;
first positioning catches, provided on the core slider positioner, for positioning the core slider picked up from the core slider container by clamping in one of the X-axis direction (and the Y-axis direction;
second positioning catches for positioning the core slider picked up from the core slider container by clamping in the other of the Y-axis direction (and the X-axis direction above the core slider positioner;
a spot radiating section for radiating UV rays onto the adhesive applied by the dispenser;
work/core slider posture detecting means for detecting a posture of the work piece and a posture of the core slider within a single view; and
position correcting means for correcting a positioning error between the adhering portion of the work piece and the core slider based on posture information of the work piece and the posture of the core slider obtained by the work piece/core slider posture detecting means;
the second positioning catches functioning as a means for moving the core slider in a Z-axis direction;
A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a core slider mounting method comprising the steps of:
setting a work piece on a work table through a jig disk;
applying an adhesive to a predetermined position of an adhering portion of the work piece with a dispenser;
vacuum sucking a core slider that is to be adhered to the adhering portion of the work piece with a core slider positioner and positioning the core slider by clamping in X- and Y-axis directions with first and second positioning catches;
moving the core slider with the core slider clamped by the second positioning catches a
Asano Yoshibumi
Iwatate Mitsuo
Nemoto Naoki
Takahashi Masami
Takami Nobuatsu
Adams & Wilks
Ball Michael W.
Seiko Instruments Inc.
Tolin Michael A.
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