Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Unit load conveying surface means moved about an endless or...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-19
2002-08-20
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Unit load conveying surface means moved about an endless or...
C406S052000, C406S062000, C406S078000, C198S445000, C198S352000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06435338
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small-parts feed and conveying device for conveying small parts such as surface-mounted-type electronic parts and general industrial parts, to be assembled in electronic devices or general industrial products, at a high speed in series of processes and for feeding them to the next device for processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, parts feeders for arranging, and constantly and automatically feeding the parts in a specified direction are generally used to convey chip capacitors mounted on a panel and small parts mounted on a general machine and the like to be assembled in the electronic devices to a processing device disposed in the first of a series of processes, or from one processing device to the next processing device.
In the above-mentioned conventional parts feeder, when the parts to be fed include a part having a burr in shape or a part exceeding the tolerance in dimension, the parts may collide with each other to cause an obstruction on the way to the outlet of the apparatus, causing a delay, and after, the outlet itself is blocked.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a small-parts feed and conveying device in which the above problems are solved so as to prevent delay while conveying the parts and to prevent blocking in the vicinity of the outlet, thereby enabling a high-speed and stable feeding.
In order to achieve the above object, the small-parts feed and conveying device according to the present invention includes a movable section in which trains having a plurality of separated through holes are arranged along the direction of conveying the small parts on a parts-conveying surface, parts drawing means for drawing the small parts during conveyance to the parts-conveying surface and for temporarily holding them by reducing the pressure of the air in the vicinity of the through holes opposite to the parts-conveying surface of the movable section, a conveying path cover in which open faces of spaces in which the small parts are enclosed for conveying slidably come into contact with the parts-conveying surface, and parts mixing means for blowing a pressurized air to the small parts through nozzles provided in the conveying path cover and for mixing the small parts in the conveying path cover.
Specifically, in the small-parts feed and conveying device according to the present invention, a principal composing element of the movable section is a rotor or a belt for conveying. Preferably, the trains having the through holes on the parts-conveying surface of the movable section are plural and are arranged in parallel, the spaces in the conveying path cover for enclosing the small parts are divided corresponding to each of the plurality of trains, and the parts mixing means individually mixes the small parts in the divided spaces.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3204750 (1965-09-01), Tarzian
patent: 3209888 (1965-10-01), Sterling
patent: 3285387 (1966-11-01), Ochs
patent: 5826696 (1998-10-01), Rupp et al.
Dillon, Jr. Joe
Ellis Christopher P.
Frank Robert J.
Humo Laboratory, Ltd.
Kelemen Gabor J.
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