Cutting – With product handling means – By fluid current
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-28
2001-12-25
Young, Lee (Department: 3729)
Cutting
With product handling means
By fluid current
C083S102000, C083S694000, C221S025000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332387
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for treating a cover tape of a carrier tape carrying electric components (e.g., electronic components), and an electric-component supplying unit, and particularly to the art of easily treating a cover tape of a carrier tape.
2. Related Art Statement
There is known an electric-component (“EC”) supplying unit which feeds a carrier tape carrying electric components (“ECs”) and thereby supplies the ECs, one by one. The carrier tape includes an accommodating tape having, at a predetermined pocket pitch, a plurality of EC-accommodating pockets accommodating a plurality of ECs, respectively, and the cover tape fixed to the accommodating tape to close respective openings of the pockets. U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,309 discloses an EC supplying unit wherein a carrier tape is wound around a supply reel which is rotatably attached to a main frame of the supplying unit and, after being drawn from the supply reel, is fed at a predetermined pitch and is positioned at an EC-supply portion of the main frame by a carrier-tape feeding device provided on the main frame. The cover tape is peeled from the accommodating tape at a position on an upstream side of the EC-supply portion as seen in a direction in which the carrier tape is fed. The peeling of the cover tape is performed by, e.g., a cover-tape taking-up device and is wound around a take-up reel.
However, various problems are encountered in the case where the cover tape is taken up around the take-up reel. For example, the take-up reel has an upper limit with respect to its size and, when the reel is filled with the cover tape, the cover tape wound around the reel must be disposed of. However, this operation is very cumbersome and time-consuming.
In addition, as the take-up reel takes up the cover tape, little by little, the diameter of the cover tape wound around the reel increases, which leads to changing taking-up conditions, e.g., increasing a length of the cover tape that is wound on the reel by a unit-angle rotation of the reel, lowering a taking-up force of the reel, and increasing a rotational inertia of the reel. Thus, in this case, it is difficult to take up the cover tape in a stable manner in which predetermined lengths of the cover tape are taken up constantly, and a failure is likely to occur in taking up the cover tape.
Moreover, the cover-tape taking-up device and the take-up reel are required to include complex mechanisms, which leads to increasing the production cost of the EC supplying unit and causes disorders to occur to the same.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cover-tape treating method which easily and efficiently treats a cover tape.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cover-tape treating apparatus which easily and efficiently treats a cover tape.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electric-component supplying unit which easily and efficiently treats a cover tape.
The present invention provides a cover-tape treating method, a cover-tape treating apparatus, and an electric-component supplying unit which have one or more of the technical features that are described below in respective paragraphs given parenthesized sequential numbers (1) to (19). Any technical feature which includes another technical feature shall do so by referring, at the beginning, to the parenthesized sequential number given to that technical feature. Thus, two or more of the following technical features may be combined, if appropriate. Each technical feature may be accompanied by a supplemental explanation, as needed. However, the following technical features and the combinations thereof are just examples to which the present invention is by no means limited.
(1) According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided a method of treating a cover tape of a carrier tape including an accommodating tape having, at a predetermined pocket pitch, a plurality of pockets accommodating a plurality of electric components, respectively, and the cover tape fixed to the accommodating tape to close respective openings of the pockets, the method comprising the steps of peeling a portion of the cover tape from the accommodating tape, and feeding the peeled portion of the cover tape in a lengthwise direction thereof, cutting off a free end portion of the fed portion of the cover tape, into a cuff-off piece of the cover tape, and sucking the cut-off piece of the cover tape with an ambient air into a suction passage, and thereby carrying away the cut-off piece. A portion of the cover tape that is peeled from the accommodating tape is fed in its lengthwise direction, and a free end portion of the fed portion is cut off into a cut-off piece. The cut-off piece is carried away by air suction. A free end portion of the cover tape may be cut off each time the peeled portion of the cover tape is fed, or after the peeled portion has been fed two or more times. For example, in the case where a single electric component (“EC”) is taken from the carrier tape in one EC-supplying operation, a free end portion of the cover tape is cut off each time the cover tape is fed over a length corresponding to the one EC and, in the case where a plurality of ECs are successively taken from the carrier tape in one EC-supplying operation, a free end portion of the cover tape is cut off after the cover tape is fed over a length corresponding to the plurality of ECs. It is possible that irrespective of whether a single or plural ECs are taken from the carrier tape in one EC-supplying operation, a free end portion of the cover tape be cut off after the cover tape is fed over a length corresponding to a predetermined number of ECs (this number is not less than 2). In either case, it is not necessary to treat a take-up reel which is filled with the cover tape, because this method does not employ the take-up reel. Therefore, the present method is free from the problem with the take-up reel that as the amount of the cover tape taken up by the take-up reel, the conditions under which the take-up reel takes up the cover tape change, which adversely influences the peeling of the cover tape from the accommodating tape and/or the feeding of the peeled cover tape. It is noted that the present cover-tape treating method may be combined with any one of the second to twelfth features (2) to (12) of the cover-tape treating apparatus, described below.
(2) According to a second feature of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for treating a cover tape of a carrier tape including an accommodating tape having, at a predetermined pocket pitch, a plurality of pockets accommodating a plurality of electric components, respectively, and the cover tape fixed to the accommodating tape to close respective openings of the pockets, the apparatus comprising a cover-tape peeling and feeding device which peels a portion of the cover tape from the accommodating tape, and feeds the peeled portion of the cover tape in a lengthwise direction thereof; a cutting device which cuts off a free end portion of the fed portion of the cover tape, into a cut-off piece of the cover tape; and a suction device which includes a suction passage and which sucks the cut-off piece of the cover tape with an ambient air into the suction passage, and thereby carries away the cut-off piece. The present cover-tape treating apparatus may carry out the cover-tape treating method according to the above-indicated first feature (1), and enjoy the same advantages of the method. The peeling and feeding of the cover tape may be concurrently performed by a single device, or may be concurrently, or at different timings, by respective exclusive devices.
(3) According to a third feature of the present invention that includes the second feature (2), the cover-tape peeling and feeding device comprises a pair of feed rollers which cooperate with each other to pinch and feed the portion of the cover tape; and a driv
Fuji Machine Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Young Lee
LandOfFree
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