Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to assemble electrical device
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-24
2003-12-16
Arbes, Carl J. (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to assemble electrical device
C029S741000, C029S740000, C029S739000, C029S721000, C029SDIG004, C414S737000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06662438
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric-component (EC) mounting apparatus, and particularly to the art of controlling the upward and downward movements of a suction nozzle which sucks and holds an EC, in particular, an electronic component.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Japanese Patent Document No. 7-9381 discloses an EC mounting apparatus which includes a plurality of suction nozzles and an elevating and lowering device which elevates and lowers each of the suction nozzles to receive an EC from an EC supplying device and mounts the EC on a printed wiring board (PWB). This EC mounting apparatus additionally includes an index table which is rotatable about a vertical axis line and a plurality of EC mounting heads which are provided on the index table such that the EC mounting heads are equiangularly spaced from each other about the axis line. The index table is intermittently rotated, by an intermittently rotating device including a servomotor as its drive source, at the same angular pitch as that at which the EC mounting heads are spaced from each other, so that the heads are sequentially moved to, and stopped at, a plurality of stop positions including an EC-receive position and an EC-mount position.
Each of the EC mounting heads includes a nozzle holder and a suction nozzle which is held by the nozzle holder such that the suction nozzle is movable in an axial direction thereof, and is not rotatable, relative to the nozzle holder. The nozzle holder is held by the index table such that the holder is movable in an axial direction thereof relative to the table. Each of the EC mounting heads is elevated and lowered by each of two EC-mounting-head elevating and lowering devices which are provided at the EC-receive position and the EC-mount position, respectively, so that the each head receives an EC from the EC supplying device and mounts the EC on the PWB. Each of the EC-mounting-head elevating and lowering devices includes an elevator member and an elevator-member driving device. The elevator-member driving device includes, as its drive source, the servomotor of the intermittently rotating device, and additionally includes a lever which is connected to the elevator member, and a cam device which includes a cam and a cam follower and which converts the rotation of the servomotor into the pivotal motion of the lever, so that the elevator member is elevated and lowered.
In a state in which the elevator member is positioned at its upper-dead or upward-movement-end position, a lower surface of the elevator member is away from an upper surface of the nozzle holder of the EC mounting head being positioned the EC-receive or EC-mount position. Midway during the downward movement of the elevator member, the elevator member contacts the upper surface of the nozzle holder, thereby lowering the nozzle holder so that the suction nozzle sucks and holds an EC. When the elevator member is elevated, the nozzle holder is elevated, owing to the biasing action of a spring, to follow the elevator member. Before the elevator member reaches its upward-movement-end position, the nozzle holder reaches its upward-movement-end position and, in a state in which the elevator member has reached its upward-movement-end position, the elevator member is away from the nozzle holder. Thus, the nozzle holder is elevated or lowered while the holder is in contact with the elevator member but, in the state in which the elevator member is away from the holder, the holder is not elevated or lowered, and accordingly the suction nozzle is not elevated or lowered, even if the elevator member is elevated or lowered.
The length of the elevator member of the EC-mounting-head elevating and lowering device provided at the EC-receive position is adjustable, and accordingly the downward-movement-end position of each suction nozzle and the position where the decreasing of speed of downward movement of the each nozzle is started are changeable. The elevator member extends downward from a portion thereof connected to the lever, and the length of extension of the elevator member from the lever is adjustable by a length adjusting device. Thus, the length of the elevator member is adjustable, and accordingly the distance between the nozzle holder and the elevator member being positioned at its upward-movement-end position is changeable. That is, although the stroke of upward and downward movements of the elevator member is not changeable, the length of a portion of the stroke that is used to elevate and lower the nozzle holder is changeable, and accordingly the stroke of upward and downward movements of the holder is changeable. The upward-movement-end position of the nozzle holder held by the index table is not changeable, but the downward-movement-end position of the holder is changeable with the changing of the stroke thereof. This EC mounting apparatus detects a height position of an upper surface of each EC supplied by the EC supplying device and, if the detected height position is higher than a correct height position, the apparatus decreases the stroke of the nozzle holder and thereby changes the downward-movement-end position of the holder to a higher position. On the other hand, if the detected height position is lower than the correct height position, the apparatus increases the stroke of the nozzle holder and thereby changes the downward-movement-end position of the holder to a lower position. When the downward-movement-end position is changed, the downward-movement-deceleration-start position is also changed. Therefore, even if the height of the EC may have an error, the distance of downward movement of the suction nozzle is never too short or long. In addition, since the suction nozzle contacts the EC at a sufficiently low speed, the nozzle can reliably suck and hold the EC, without failing to hold the same or damaging the same.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides EC mounting apparatus which has the following features. Those features are described, like claims, in respective paragraphs which are given respective numbers. Any feature that includes another feature shall do so by referring to the number given to the latter feature. However, the following features and the appropriate combinations thereof are just examples to which the technical features, and the combinations thereof, described in the specification are by no means limited. In addition, in the case where one feature recites a plurality of items, it is not essentially required that all of those items be simultaneously employed in the one feature. That is, it is possible to select and employ only a portion (one, two, . . . , but not all) of those items.
(1) According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for mounting at least one electric component supplied by an electric-component supplying device, on a circuit substrate supported by a circuit-substrate supporting device, the apparatus comprising a nozzle moving device which moves a suction nozzle having an end surface that applies a suction to the electric component and thereby holds the component, in a direction intersecting an axis line of the suction nozzle; an elevating and lowering device which elevates and lowers the suction nozzle so that the suction nozzle performs at least one of receiving the electric component from the electric-component supplying device and mounting the component on the circuit substrate on the circuit-substrate supporting device; the elevating and lowering device comprising a movable member, and a connecting device which connects the movable member to the suction nozzle such that the suction nozzle continues moving while the movable member continues moving; and the connecting device comprising a downward-movement control device which changes, while the apparatus performs an electric-component mounting operation, at least one of a position of an end of a downward movement of the suction nozzle caused by the elevating and lowering device and a position where a decelerat
Ishikawa Takehisa
Suhara Shinsuke
Arbes Carl J.
Fuji Machine Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Trinh Minh
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