Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to assemble electrical device
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-05
2003-03-04
Huson, Gregory L. (Department: 3751)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to assemble electrical device
C029S743000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06526651
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printed circuit transferring apparatus of a surface mounter, and more particularly to a printed circuit transferring apparatus of a surface mounter, enabling to accurately control the positions where the electronic components are to be mounted on a printed circuit board, to make it possible the work at arbitrary positions, and to further provide an easy compensation for any errors possibly occurring in mounting the electronic components.
Further, the present invention relates to a printed circuit transferring apparatus of a surface mounter for mounting various chips as well as surface mounting components on the printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
In developing recent electronic products, there are trends toward their higher density, smaller size and a variety of electronic components, which developments are becoming highly competitive.
In particular, a surface mounting technology is applied to a printed circuit board (PCB) used for mounting the electric and electronic components thereon by a surface mounting apparatus. The use of such a technology is becoming popular.
A surface mounting assembly equipment typically has the surface mounting apparatus as a core apparatus for mounting the surface mounting components on the PCB. The surface mounting apparatus receives the various types of surface mounting components from a part feeder, transfers the components to the component mounting positions, and then performs the mounting of the components on the PCB.
The surface mounting apparatus is greatly classified into two types of apparatuses, i.e., high speed apparatus and general purpose apparatus, depending upon the function thereof. The former one is designed to assemble a great deal of components in a relatively short time period thus resulting in advantageously provision of faster components mounting operation suitable for mass production. However, this type of apparatus has a drawback in the reduced mounting precision. The latter one is adapted to mount various types of components thus resulting in the provision of higher mounting precision and the feasibility of the mounting of various components. The general purpose apparatus has an advantage for smaller amount of production of various components, but the drawback is its lower throughput caused by the production in retard.
The surface mounting apparatus consists of a feeder (hereinafter, referred to as ‘tape feeder’) for supplying components, X-Y gantry for determining the mounting positions, a conveyer for carrying a PCB, a header unit for orderly picking up the components from the tape feeder and mounting the same onto the PCB.
The surface mounting apparatus generally refers to an apparatus adapted to mount electronic components, including various chips, on a PCB, and is also collectively called as a mounter.
The detailed structure of the above mentioned mounter will be described below.
The conventional mounter consists of: a base assembly; a conveyer unit disposed on an upper portion of the base assemble, and for carrying the PCB; a feeder unit for supplying various chips or surface mounting components so that these components can be mounted on the PCB; a mounter head assembly for mounting respective components suppled from the feeder unit on the PCB; a sensing unit for sensing the components and correcting the positions thereof such that various components to be mounted by the mounted head assembly can be accurately mounted; an X-Y gantry unit provided with the sensing unit and the mounter head assembly, and for positioning same using an X-Y table; and the others.
The X-Y gantry unit is structured such that one block is moved to a position designated by a X-Y table to perform the mounting work. Herein, said one block consists of plural general-purpose heads and precision specific-purpose heads and functions in such a manner that the electronic components are centered.
The centering performance for respective electronic components greatly depends on whether what type of feeders is used to supply the components or what type of cameras is employed.
The above-mentioned sensing units are, respectively, disposed on front and rear sites, in consideration of the work efficiency. One sensing unit located in the front site is for sensing the components fed from the feeder positioned at a front feeder base, while the other sensing unit located in the rear site is for sensing the components fed from another feeder positioned at a rear feeder base. These sensing units acquire images of the components to use same at the time mounting the electronic components.
The conveyer unit carries the PCB on which various chips are to be mounted, and functions to transfer the PCB. The transfer of the PCB is made by a conveyer belt installed on the conveyer unit. The mounter head installed in the X-Y gantry is used to mount the chips.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a conventional surface mounter,
FIG. 2
is a perspective view structurely showing a conventional conveyor for supplying PCBs, and
FIG. 3
is a plan view of the conveyor of FIG.
2
.
Referring to
FIGS. 1
,
2
and
3
, there are shown a frame assembly
100
for supporting a surface mounter, a base assembly
102
disposed on an upper portion of the frame assembly
100
and acting as a base, and a conveyer system
104
installed on an upper portion of the base assembly
102
and for transferring the PCBs.
Further, on an upstream of the conveyer system
104
, there is provided an X-Y gantry unit
106
which is operated to move in right, left, forward, and backward directions in order to mount the electronic components, the X-Y gantry unit
106
being comprised of respective gantry frames
109
for supporting an X- and Y-axes.
The gantry frame
109
thus constructed is provided with a movable mounter head assembly
108
used for mounting the components on the PCB transferred by the conveyer system
104
.
The mounter head assembly
108
is further provided with a mounter head
120
having a nozzle
112
sucking the components, and a vision unit
114
for carrying out an inspection so that the components sucked can be mounted at the accurate positions on the PCB. Moreover, the conveyer system
104
is provided with a stopper assembly
110
for stopping the transferring of the PCB when the PCB arrives at the work position, a pusher
116
serving to elevate the PCB, and a magnet
118
disposed on a lower portion of the conveyer system
104
to fix the pusher
116
.
Further, the conveyer system
104
transferring the PCB is provided with opposing guides
123
,
124
disposed parallel to each other on both sides of the base
128
, having upper portions thereof on which rails
126
are formed on which both ends of the PCB are placed to be slidably moved thereon. Between both the guides
123
,
124
, there is installed a push plate
122
having an upper surface on which the stopper assembly
110
is disposed, and in which plural pushers
116
are installed to elevate upward the PCB stopped by said stopper assembly
110
and have respective lower ends thereof to which magnet
118
are installed for fixing the pushers
116
into the push plate
122
.
Also, a guide bar
143
is installed in a transversal direction with respect to the guides
123
,
124
installed on both sides of the stopper assembly
110
.
Further, ball screws
134
are installed on front and rear portions of the guides
123
,
134
in a transversal direction with respect thereto, respectively, and has respective one end portion thereof to which driving motors are, respectively, installed. With activation of the driving motor
130
, the ball screws
134
are rotated to push the guides
123
,
124
. Thereby, a smooth supply of the PCBs can be made by an appropriately spread guides in a case of different PCB in size thereof.
However, the conventional PCB transferring apparatus as described above has drawbacks in that when the PCB is suppled to the conveyer unit, the X-Y gantry needs to be moved right and left so that th
Fleshner & Kim LLP
Huson Gregory L.
Huynh Khoa
Mirae Corporation
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