Method and device for mounting electronic components

Details Method and device for mounting electronic components Method and device for mounting electronic components

1998-03-10

2001-07-10

Young, Lee (Department: 3729)

Metal working

Method of mechanical manufacture

Electrical device making

C029S740000, C029S739000, C029S833000, C029S721000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06256876

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method of automatically mounting electronic components at predetermined positions of an electronic circuit board and an apparatus therefor.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Referring to
FIG. 6
, a typical example of conventional electronic components mounting apparatus will be explained. In
FIG. 6
, an orthogonal robot
31
moves a mounting head
32
to an arbitrary position in x and y directions. On the tip of the mounting head
32
is provided a suction nozzle
33
which can be moved up and down. A chuck may be used in place of the suction nozzle
33
.
A circuit board holder
34
holds at a predetermined position an electronic circuit board
35
supplied from outside the apparatus. An electronic components holding unit
36
stores electronic components to be mounted on the electronic circuit board
35
. On the electronic components holding unit
36
, a plurality of electronic component supplying cassettes
37
is arranged in a line.
In the above construction, when an electronic component is to be mounted, the mounting head
32
first moves to the electronic components holding unit
36
, picks up an electronic component from an preferable electronic component supplying cassette
37
on the electronic components holding unit
36
by means of the suction nozzle
33
; subsequently the mounting head
32
moves to the circuit board holder
34
and mounts the electronic component at a predetermined position on the pre-positioned electronic circuit board
35
.
In the above described conventional electronic components mounting apparatus, as the number of types of electronic components to be mounted on the electronic circuit board
35
increases the number of the electronic component supplying cassettes
37
to be arranged on the electronic components holding unit increases making it necessary to either install more than one unit of electronic components mounting apparatus or a larger-capacity electronic components mounting apparatus.
In the meantime, there exist different types of electronic components such as chip resistors which are the same in construction, configuration, and dimensions yet have different characteristic values. In the conventional method, it has been necessary to cope with such situation by arranging on the electronic components holding unit
36
an electronic component supplying cassette
37
for each of the component types. It was thus sometimes necessary to install more than one main units or a larger-size main unit of the mounting apparatus resulting in increase in equipment cost and the management cost of electronic component supplying cassettes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the problems associated with the conventional method and provides a method and apparatus of electronic components mounting with which the number of electronic component supplying cassettes to be arranged on the electronic components holding unit can be reduced to less than the number of types of components thus decreasing the equipment cost and the management cost of the electronic component supplying cassettes.
The electronic components mounting method in accordance with the present invention consists of a mounting process in which an electronic component is picked up from the electronic components holding unit and is mounted on an electronic circuit board, and a processing process to trim the electronic component to a preferable characteristic value within the mounting process.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an electronic component is trimmed by a laser beam while its characteristic value is being measured or while its trimming position is being observed by an image recognition device.
The electronic components mounting apparatus in accordance with the present invention comprises an electronic components holding unit which stores electronic components, a circuit board holder to hold an electronic circuit board, a mounting head which picks up an electronic component and mounts it at a predetermined position on the electronic circuit board, and a laser trimming unit to trim the electronic component until a preferable characteristic value is obtained.
In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the laser trimming unit is provided with a measuring means to measure the characteristic values of electronic components, a laser oscillation means, a laser scanning means to change the position of laser beam irradiation, an image pick up means to pick up the image of electronic components, and a control unit to control the position of laser beam irradiation based on the picked up image. Also, the electronic components holding unit has a plurality of electronic component supplying cassettes arranged in a line, and the laser trimming unit is so provided that it can be moved to the upper part of the electronic components holding unit in the direction along which the electronic component supplying cassettes are arranged.
By employing the method and apparatus for electronic components mounting in accordance with the present invention, it is possible to decrease the number of the electronic component supplying cassettes to be arranged on the electronic components holding unit by being able to trim electronic components to preferable characteristic values within the mounting process of the electronic components thereby allowing to reduce the number of electronic component supplying cassettes and hence reducing the equipment cost and management cost of the electronic component supplying cassettes.


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