Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to assemble electrical device
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-22
2004-08-31
Chang, Rick Kiltae (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to assemble electrical device
C029S739000, C029S741000, C029S832000, C226S128000, C242S558000, C242S566000, C242S564400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06782606
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of manufacture and assembly of circuit boards. More specifically it relates to a tape guide for guiding a carrier tape in a component mounting machine, a tape magazine for receiving the tape guide, and a system including the tape guide and the tape magazine.
2. Description of Background Art
Generally, within the field of manufacture and assembly of circuit boards, electronic components are fed to a component mounting machine for mechanically and/or electrically mounting the components onto a circuit board. These surface mounted components are often delivered spaced apart along the length of a component tape, which consists of a lower carrier tape provided with compartments, one for each component, and an upper cover, or cover tape or protective tape. After positioning the electronic components in the corresponding compartments, the cover tape is attached to the carrier tape, and the component tape is wound on a component reel. The attachment of the cover tape to the carrier tape can, for instance, be performed by providing either the cover tape or the carrier tape with adhesive areas, or by fusing the cover tape to the carrier tape. Then, the component reel is transferred to a component mounting machine, which feeds a component to a certain predetermined picking position where it can be picked, or collected, by a pick-up head. WO 86/00778 shows a cassette magazine for a component mounting machine using the above described method.
According to the method conventionally used within the art, the loading of a component tape in a component mounting machine involves the following steps. Placing the component tape reel into the tape holder of a component mounting machine, or into a tape magazine of a component mounting machine; introducing the free end of the component tape into a feeding mechanism, provided in the machine or in the magazine, such that feeding pins engage corresponding holes provided in the component tape; separating, by hand, the end of the cover tape from the end of the carrier tape for a distance sufficient for the cover tape to be engaged with a cover tape handling means; and lowering a locking mechanism over the carrier tape for holding the carrier tape against the feeding mechanism.
Prior to the picking of the components, each component has to be exposed so as to make it available for picking. Conventionally, this is achieved by removing the cover tape from the carrier tape. The cover tape is then fed away by a separate cover tape handling means in order for the cover tape not to disturb the picking of components. Generally, the cover tape handling means comprises a winding hub on which the cover tape is wound. Additionally, when unloading the component tape from the component mounting machine, or the tape magazine, the winding hub has to be cleared of the cover tape.
A considerable length of the end of the cover tape has to be separated from the end of the carrier tape in order to bring the cover tape end to a cover tape handling means. Thus, the first decimeters of a new carrier tape are not provided with components. Otherwise, numerous components would be wasted during loading. However, when reloading a tape reel that already has been partly used, the tape is provided with components throughout, and consequently a large number of components may be wasted.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,369 discloses an alternative method and device for exposing the components at the picking position. According to the embodiments shown in
FIGS. 7 and 8
, the cover tape is separated from the carrier tape along one side of the carrier tape only, while the cover tape remains adhered to the carrier tape along the other side. Thereby, the need for separate cover tape handling means is reduced or even eliminated. Using this method, the distance of cover tape that has to be removed from the carrier tape when loading or reloading a carrier tape can be reduced, but not eliminated, thus there would still be some component waste. Further, there would also still be components wasted when unloading a carrier tape from the compartments where the components have been exposed but have not yet been picked-up. Even though this method would be preferred as compared to using a separate cover tape handling means, the loading of the carrier tape into the component mounting machine and the device for exposing the components must still be performed individually for each carrier tape. During this time, the component mounting machine must be shut off.
As realised from the above, the loading of a component tape in a component mounting machine is a time-consuming and complicated process that has to be performed every time a new component has to be added to the circuit board manufacturing process, and every time an empty component tape has to be replaced. This negatively affects the overall time efficiency of the manufacturing process and, hence, the overall costs. Additionally, when using a winding hub, or the like, for handling the cover tape, the required time for the loading process is further increased, and the unloading of the component tape includes the additional step of clearing the winding hub of the cover tape. Furthermore, there is high risk of a considerable component waste with the loading method according to prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the problem of complicated and time-consuming loading of a carrier tape into a component mounting machine.
A further object of the present invention is to reduce the high number of wasted components when unloading/reloading a carrier tape from/into a component mounting machine.
This and other objects are achieved according to the present invention by providing a tape guide, a tape magazine and a system having the features defined in the independent claims. Preferred embodiments are defined in the dependent claims.
For the purpose of clarity, the term lateral refers to the lateral direction of the carrier tape. The terms distal and proximal refers to the direction opposite to and along the feeding direction of the carrier tape, respectively.
The present invention is based on the insight of providing a tape guide, for guiding a carrier tape in a component mounting machine, said tape guide comprising exposure means for exposing the components at a picking position, wherein the exposure means comprises separating means for separating and lifting a lateral portion of the cover from the carrier tape, leaving the remaining portion of the cover at least partially attached to the carrier tape, and for bringing the lifted portion of the cover aside, with the ability to be releasably mounted such that the loading and/or unloading of a carrier tape into and from the tape guide can be performed away from the component mounting machine. Preferably, this is achieved according to the present invention by providing a tape guide with locking means for ready and quick attachment and detachment to interacting locking means in a component mounting machine, guiding means for guiding a carrier tape, and carrier tape retaining means for retaining the position of the carrier tape relative the tape guide.
By providing a tape guide with the ability to be loaded with a carrier tape away from a component mounting machine and to be subsequently loaded into the component mounting machine, a facilitated loading of the carrier tape into the machine, a reduced downtime of the machine, and, thereby, an improved time efficiency of the entire manufacturing process is achieved. This is due to the fact that the time-consuming process of loading the carrier tape into a component mounting machine, as described above with reference to known art, is reduced to simply placing a component tape reel into the tape holder of a component mounting machine, and mounting a tape guide into the machine. The rest of the loading process is performed beforehand and away from the component mounting machine. Thus, the downtime of the com
Chang Rick Kiltae
Mydata Automation AB
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