Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-10
2003-11-04
Vo, Peter (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
C029S703000, C029S712000, C029S740000, C029S742000, C029S743000, C029S759000, C029S760000, C029S833000, C294S002000, C294S064200, C414S737000, C414S752100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06640431
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electric-component mounting apparatus and method for moving a suction nozzle holding, by suction, an electric component, and mounting, on a circuit substrate such as a printed circuit board, the electric component held by the suction nozzle, and particularly to the art of handling a defective suction nozzle.
2. Related Art Statement
This sort of electric-component (“EC”) mounting apparatus is disclosed in, e.g., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/977,662 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,277 assigned to the assignee of the present application. The disclosed mounting apparatus includes a movable member; a rotatable body which is rotatably supported by the movable member; and a plurality of suction nozzles which are supported by the rotatable body. When the movable member is moved, respective electric components (“ECs”) held by the suction nozzles are simultaneously transferred, and when the rotatable body is rotated, the suction nozzles are sequentially moved to an EC-mount position where each of the suction nozzles mounts, on a circuit substrate (“CS”), the EC held thereby.
The above-identified EC mounting apparatus iteratively holds and transfers ECs and mounts the ECs on CSs. Accordingly, in an EC mounting operation, one or more of the suction nozzles may become defective, for example, may be bent or curved, be stained, or be worn, and may fail to hold or mount an EC. Conventionally, each defective suction nozzle is manually exchanged with a normal suction nozzle by an operator. However, the nozzle exchange is cumbersome and time-consuming. Since the EC mounting operation is suspended by the nozzle exchange, the EC mounting efficiency is lowered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an electric-component mounting apparatus and an electric-component mounting method which have one or more of the technical features that are described below in respective paragraphs given parenthesized sequential numbers (1) to (25). 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. Rather, the concept of the present invention should be construed based on the entire description of the specification and the drawings.
(1) According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for moving at least one suction nozzle holding, by suction, an electric component, and mounting, on a circuit substrate, the component held by the nozzle, the apparatus comprising a nozzle-defect detecting device which detects a defect of the suction nozzle; and a nozzle exchanging device which automatically exchanges the defective suction nozzle having the detected defect, with a normal suction nozzle. The present electric-component (“EC”) mounting apparatus may be one which includes only one suction nozzle, or one which includes a plurality of suction nozzles. The at least one suction nozzle may be moved by a movable member which is movable to an arbitrary position on a plane, or may be rotated by a rotatable body which is rotatable about an axis line. When the nozzle-defect detecting device automatically detects a defect of the suction nozzle, the nozzle exchanging device automatically exchanges the defective suction nozzle having the defect, with a normal suction nozzle. Thus, the present EC mounting apparatus exchanges the suction nozzles more quickly than an operator does with his or her hands. Although the EC mounting operation may be suspended by the nozzle exchange, the decrease of the EC mounting efficiency is minimized. In addition, since the EC mounting apparatus needs no intervention of the operator for performing the nozzle exchange and can full-automatically perform the EC mounting operation, the operator need not do the nozzle exchange and can do another task. Thus, the working efficiency of the operator is increased.
(2) According to a second feature of the present invention that includes the first feature (1), the mounting apparatus further comprises a nozzle-exchanging-device control device which controls, when the nozzle-defect detecting device detects the defective suction nozzle, the nozzle exchanging device to exchange the defective suction nozzle with the normal suction nozzle, while suspending an electric-component mounting operation which is continuously performed when the nozzle-defect detecting device does not detect the defective suction nozzle. The electric-component (“EC”) mounting operation means, for example, mounting a plurality of ECs on a single circuit substrate (“CS”), mounting a single EC on each of a plurality of CSs, or mounting a plurality of ECs on each of a plurality of CSs. In the case where the present EC mounting apparatus is one which can mount ECs in each of a plurality of different mounting manners, the EC mounting operation means mounting ECs in each of the different mounting manners. For example, as will be explained in DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS, in the case where two EC mounting apparatuses take ECs from respective exclusive EC supplying devices, and cooperate with each other to produce an electric circuit by alternately mounting the ECs on a CS, an EC mounting system including the two EC mounting apparatuses may be used in a first mounting manner in which the two EC supplying devices are used to mount ECs on a certain single sort of CSs and include same sorts of EC-supply feeders and all the EC-supply feeders of the two supplying devices are used to mount ECs on each of a plurality of CSs of the single sort. Alternatively, the EC mounting system including the two mounting apparatuses may be used in a second mounting manner in which each of the two EC supplying devices include EC-supply feeders needed to mount ECs on two sorts of CSs and the EC-supply feeders of the two supplying devices are used to mount continuously ECs on each of a plurality of CSs of the two sorts without needing any exchanges of the EC-supply feeders. The EC mounting operation includes all steps that are carried out, for mounting ECs, by the EC mounting apparatuses from the start to the end. Thus, the EC mounting operation includes, in addition to the step of mounting ECs on a CS, the step of sucking and holding the ECs, the step of moving the suction nozzles between the EC supplying devices and the CS, and may additionally include a waiting step in which the EC mounting apparatuses just wait without doing anything. Thus, the nozzle exchange may be performed in the EC mounting operation, for example, in the EC-mounting step, the EC-sucking-and-holding step, the nozzle-moving step, or the waiting step. If the nozzle exchange is performed in the EC-mounting step, the EC-sucking-and-holding step, or the nozzle-moving step, each step is temporarily suspended, and after the exchange, it is resumed. In the waiting step, the nozzle exchange can be performed without suspending any of the above-indicated steps. Since the defective suction nozzle is exchanged with the normal suction nozzle in the EC mounting operation, the present EC mounting apparatus can continue to mount the ECs on the CS with the normal suction nozzle. This contributes to lowering the decrease of the EC mounting efficiency. For example, in the case where the present EC mounting apparatus includes a plurality of suction nozzles and does not use one or more defective suction nozzles to mount ECs on a CS, the number of the suction nozzles that can be used to mount the ECs is decreased by the number of the defective suction nozzles, which leads to lowering the EC mounting efficiency. However, after the defective nozzle or nozzles is/are exchanged with the norma
Imai Mitsuo
Kodama Jiro
Yasuda Kimihiko
Yoriki Minoru
Fuji Machine Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Kim Paul D
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Vo Peter
LandOfFree
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