Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-24
2003-04-29
Vo, Peter (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
C029S740000, C029S832000, C029S834000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06553659
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component mounting apparatus for mounting electronic components successively in prescribed positions on a mounting object, such as a circuit board, or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 4
shows one example of an electronic component mounting apparatus of this kind. The apparatus comprises a component supplying section
16
for accommodating and automatically supplying electronic components
22
, a component mounting section
18
moving in mutually orthogonal X and Y directions in order to register the position of a circuit board
17
onto which electronic components
22
are to be mounted, suction nozzle sections
120
for picking up electronic components
22
automatically supplied by the component supplying section
16
and mounting same at prescribed positions on the circuit board
17
, and a head section
121
comprising a plurality of such suction nozzle sections
120
provided on the outer circumference thereof. The head section
121
is driven to rotate intermittently to prescribed halt positions, where the suction nozzle sections
120
perform the operations of picking up the electronic components
22
by suction and mounting same on the circuit board
17
.
The details of the aforementioned suction nozzle sections
120
are described here with reference to FIG.
5
.
The suction nozzle section
120
is supported on a guide
24
in a vertically slidable fashion and is thereby mounted on the electronic component mounting apparatus. A cam follower
30
is provided at a prescribed position in the guide section
24
in order to engage with a raising and lowering groove cam (not illustrated). On the inner portion of each suction nozzle section
120
, a rotating member
31
is provided rotatably about a vertical axis with respect to the upper face of the circuit board
17
on which electronic components are to be mounted. Below the rotating member
31
, there is provided a U-shaped rod section
32
which engages with the rotating member
31
via a coupling member (not illustrated) and rotates about the same vertical axis as the rotating member
31
.
At the upper end of the rotating member
31
, a coupling section
31
a
with V-shaped grooves that engages with rotational driving means (not illustrated) is provided. Below the U-shaped rod section
32
, a rotating member
27
which rotates about a horizontal axis with respect to the upper face of the circuit board
17
is provided by means of a bearing (not illustrated), and a turret
25
is disposed in such a manner that it engages with this rotating member
27
. A plurality of nozzle tip sections
26
are attached to this turret
25
. Furthermore, engaging grooves
27
a
for restricting rotation are provided in the rotating member
27
, along with a spring
29
which presses an engaging hook
28
capable of engaging with and disengaging from the engaging groove
27
a
, towards an engagement position.
This electronic component mounting apparatus is operated as described below.
The head section
121
comprising a plurality of suction nozzle sections
120
is rotated intermittently in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG.
4
. Firstly, at a component supply position of the component supplying section
16
, a suction nozzle section
120
picks up an electronic component
22
by suction, whereupon the attitude of the suctioned electronic component
22
is recognized at a position corresponding to an image recognition section
19
.
Depending on the attitude of the suctioned electronic component
22
thus recognized, an amount of correction for the positional registration position of the component mounting section
18
, and an amount of correction for the rotation of the nozzle tip section (U-shaped rod section)
32
are calculated, in consideration of the mounting position and mounting angle for the electronic component
22
onto the circuit board
17
that are registered beforehand. The component mounting section
18
is moved and the nozzle tip section (U-shaped rod section)
32
is rotated on the basis of the calculated data (respective amounts of correction), whereupon the electronic component
22
is mounted onto the circuit board
17
. In this operation, the engaging hook
28
is caused to perform a rocking movement about the fulcrum thereof, by means of a rocking movement of a lever (not illustrated) contacting one end thereof, thereby releasing the other end thereof which is engaged with an engaging groove
27
a
of the rotating member
27
. Thereupon, the turret
25
coupled to the rotating member
27
is rotated by driving the rotating member
27
by the rotational driving means (not illustrated).
When a prescribed nozzle tip section
26
is selected, the lever (not illustrated) contacting one end of the engaging hook
28
is released by a rocking movement, whereby the engaging hook
28
is caused to engage with an engaging groove
27
a
of the rotating member
27
by means of the spring
29
pressing the engaging hook
28
towards the engagement position. Thereupon, at a position corresponding to a nozzle recognition section
23
in
FIG. 4
, image recognition of the nozzle tip section
26
is performed, and it is determined whether or not the prescribed nozzle has been selected. The series of operations described above is performed repeatedly.
However, in this conventional electronic component mounting apparatus, when selecting a nozzle tip section
26
, it is necessary to halt the rotation of the head section
121
temporarily for a prescribed period of time, in order to release the engaging hook
28
from the engaging groove
27
a
of the rotating member
27
and rotate the rotating member
27
by the rotational driving means, and hence this is greatly disadvantageous when seeking to achieve a high-speed component mounting operation.
Moreover, since it is necessary to provide a spring
29
having a high elastic force to press on the engaging hook
28
, the load on the engaging grooves
27
a
of the rotating member
27
and on the engaging hook
28
is high, and hence this has an adverse effect on durability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Consequently, it is an object of the present invention to resolve the aforementioned problems by providing an electronic component mounting apparatus, whereby increased speed in electronic component mounting operations can be achieved by enabling nozzle tip sections to be selected whilst a head section is rotating, and furthermore, whereby the durability of suction nozzle sections can be improved.
In order to achieve the aforementioned object, the electronic component mounting apparatus of the present invention comprises an improved suction nozzle section that comprises a plurality of nozzle tip sections, a rod section for holding said nozzle tip sections such as to allow each of the nozzle tip sections to move upward and downward, said nozzle tip sections being disposed about the outer edge of the rod section, a motor section connected to the rod section for causing said rod section to rotate about the central axis of the suction nozzle section, a cylindrical cam section provided concentric with the rod section such as to be rotatable relative to the rod section, having a cam surface for restricting height positions of the nozzle tip sections by performing relative rotation with respect to the rod section, and a stopper section provided on an outer side of the cylindrical cam section for halting the rotation of the cylindrical cam section so as to cause only the rod section to rotate relative to the cylindrical cam section.
More specifically, the stopper section comprises a recess formed in a side face of the cylindrical cam section and an engaging section disposed engageably and disengageably with said recess. When the engaging section of the stopper section is engaged with the recess in the cylindrical cam section, only the rod section can rotate, so that, of the plurality of nozzle tip sections held by the rod section, the nozzle tip section guided by the cylindrical ca
Fujiwara Muneyoshi
Hamasaki Kurayasu
Ida Akiko
Sakurai Kunio
Yamamoto Minoru
Boswell Alan M.
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Vo Peter
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