Advancing material of indeterminate length – Plural material-moving means – With intermittent material-mover
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-28
2001-01-30
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Advancing material of indeterminate length
Plural material-moving means
With intermittent material-mover
C226S147000, C226S145000, C226S151000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179190
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape feeder of a chip mounter, and more particularly, to a tape feeder in a chip mounter, which peels off a cover tape while transferring a chip mounter tape by a predetermined length and discharges or winds the peeled cover tape.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic parts such as semiconductor chip are difficult to treat piece by piece, and are prone to contamination by foreign matters such as dust. As shown in
FIG. 1
, chips
100
are handled by being packed in tapes. That is, the chips
100
are put in receiving spaces
12
formed apart from each other on a base tape
11
, and sealed by a cover tape
13
, thereby forming a chip tape
10
.
The chip tape
10
is provided by a tape feeder (not shown) installed on a chip mounter for mounting the chips
100
, for example, on a printed circuit board. That is, while the chip tape
10
is intermittently supplied by a predetermined length from the tape feeder, the base tape
11
and the cover tape
13
are separated from each other. Then, a chuck (not shown) provided in the chip mounter picks up the chips
100
from the receiving spaces
12
.
The tape feeder, separating the cover tape
13
of the chip tape
10
from the base tape
11
, winds the separated cover tape
13
on a reel or expels it to the outside.
An exemplary tape feeder of a chip mounter, which winds the separated cover tape on a reel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,859. The tape feeder includes a transfer means for intermittently transferring the tape by a predetermined length from the feeder to a position to be mounted; means simultaneously operating with the transferring means for winding a cover tape from the tape; a shuttle road for connecting the winding means to the transferring means; and an actuator for reciprocating the shuttle road to drive the winding means and the transferring means. Here, the winding means includes a take up reel assembly and a planetary gear connected to a shaft interlocking with the take up reel assembly to rotate in only one direction.
Such an electronic part feeder requires to separate employment of a take up reel for winding the cover tape and a means for intermittently driving the take up reel, such that the structure of the feeder is relatively complicated.
FIG. 2
shows a conventional tape feeder that adopts a method of expelling a peeled cover tape to the outside.
Referring to
FIG. 2
, a pair of wheels
21
and
22
closely connected to each other are rotated intermittently by a driving means (not shown), so that a cover tape
13
sandwiched between the two wheels is expelled to the outside. The cover tape
13
is transferred by friction between the two wheels
21
and
22
, and accordingly when an adhesive remains on the cover tape
13
, it may be attached to and wound on the outer circumferential surface of the wheel without being smoothly discharged to the outside.
Also, the cover tape
13
has an irregular travel path, and easily deviates from an accurate contact portion between the wheels
21
and
22
. Thus, the cover tape
13
may be escaped from the wheels
21
and
22
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve the above problems, it is an exemplary objective of the present invention to provide a tape feeder of a chip mounter, which has a simple structure of winding a cover tape on a reel or discharging the cover tape to the outside, and operates with reliability.
Accordingly, there is provided a tape feeder of a chip mounter comprising: a frame; a wheel member rotatably installed on the frame; a reel installed coaxially with the wheel member, for winding a cover tape; driving means for intermittently rotating the wheel member a predetermined amount in one direction; and a reverse rotation prevention member frictionally in contact with the wheel member, for preventing reverse rotation of the wheel member.
It is preferable that the reverse rotation prevention member has one end pivotally installed on the frame and the other end on which a curved friction surface contacting the outer circumference of the wheel member is formed, and the radius of the curved friction surface gradually increases in the direction of rotation of the wheel member.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the reverse rotation prevention member comprises: a pivot lever whose one end is pivotally supported by the frame; a friction wheel which is installed on the other end of the pivot lever so as to contact the wheel member and rotates in only a direction that is reverse to the direction of rotation of the wheel member; and a spring for elastically biasing the pivot lever so that the friction wheel can contact the wheel member.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tape feeder of a chip mounter comprising: a frame; a transfer wheel rotatably installed on the frame, for intermittently transferring a chip tape by a predetermined length; a wheel member rotatably installed on the frame; a reel installed coaxially with the wheel member, for winding a cover tape separated from the chip tape; driving means for intermittently rotating the transfer wheel and the wheel member a predetermined amount in one direction; and a reverse rotation prevention member for preventing reverse rotation of the wheel member or the reel by frictionally contacting either the wheel member or the reel.
Here, the driving means comprises: an actuator; a first link whose one end is connected to the actuator and the other end is pivotally coupled to the frame, and on which a cam portion is formed; a second link having a center rotatably coupled to the frame, and one end on which a cam follower interlocked with the cam portion is installed; a first latched pawl which is pivotally installed on the other end of the second link and elastically biased so that one end of the first latched pawl can mesh with the teeth of the transfer wheel; and a power switch unit interlocking with the pivoting of the second link for intermittently rotating the wheel member a predetermined amount.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tape feeder of a chip mounter comprising: a frame; a transfer wheel rotatably installed on the frame, for intermittently transferring a chip tape by a predetermined length; a driven wheel rotatably installed on the frame; a discharge wheel installed coaxially with the driven wheel; a driving wheel installed so as to contact the outer circumferential surface of the driven wheel, for intermittently rotating the driven wheel a predetermined amount of rotation in only one direction; a pressure wheel installed so as to closely contact the outer circumferential surface of the discharge wheel, with a cover tape, separated from the chip tape, sandwiched between the pressure wheel and the discharge wheel, for discharging the cover tape due to the rotation; and driving means for intermittently rotating the transfer wheel and the driving wheel a predetermined amount respectively in one direction.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1309420 (1919-07-01), Schroeder
patent: 4620655 (1986-11-01), Fujita
patent: 4735341 (1988-04-01), Hamilton et al.
patent: 4943342 (1990-07-01), Golemon
patent: 5116454 (1992-05-01), Kurihara
patent: 5282659 (1994-02-01), Yasuraoka et al.
patent: 5310301 (1994-05-01), Aono
patent: 5419802 (1995-05-01), Nakatsuka et al.
patent: 5531859 (1996-07-01), Lee et al.
patent: 6082603 (2000-07-01), Takada et al.
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Samsung Aerospace Insustries, Ltd.
Walsh Donald P.
Webb Collin A.
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