Component mounting apparatus

Details Component mounting apparatus Component mounting apparatus

2000-02-29

2003-02-18

Arbes, Carl J. (Department: 3729)

Metal working

Means to assemble or disassemble

Means to assemble electrical device

C029S741000, C029S759000, C029S833000, C029S720000, C029S721000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06519838

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a component mounting apparatus for mounting electronic components onto circuit boards.
Component mounting apparatuses for mounting electronic components onto boards to produce component-mounted boards are required to implement such stable operation as will prevent occurrences of apparatus faults due to operational errors of the apparatus or human errors or the like.
Arrangement of a prior art example of such component mounting apparatuses is shown in FIG.
5
. This component mounting apparatus
40
comprises: a transfer section
42
for transferring to a specified position a circuit board
43
onto which components are to be mounted; a feed section
41
for feeding to a specified position a component
44
which is to be mounted onto the circuit board
43
; an X-Y robot
47
equipped with a head
45
having a suction nozzle
49
for sucking up the component
44
from the feed section
41
and mounting it onto the circuit board
43
and with a board recognition camera
46
for the positioning of a mounting position; and a nozzle station
50
for storing a plurality of suction nozzles
49
corresponding to a plurality of components
44
.
In this arrangement, the circuit board
43
is transferred to a specified mounting position by the transfer section
42
. In order to load to the head
45
a suction nozzle
49
corresponding to the component
44
to be mounted, the X-Y robot
47
moves the head
45
to a location above the nozzle station
50
, separates the currently loaded suction nozzle
49
from the head
45
, and then loads to the head
45
a suction nozzle
49
matching the component
44
to be next mounted. Next, the X-Y robot
47
moves the board recognition camera
46
to a location above the circuit board
43
and measures a board mark
51
provided on the circuit board
43
, thus accomplishing an operation of recognizing the mounting position. Subsequently, the X-Y robot
47
moves the head
45
to the feed section
41
, sucks up the fed component
44
by the suction nozzle
49
, and moves the head
45
to a location above the mounting position on the circuit board
43
. In this operation, the suction posture in which the component
44
is sucked up by the suction nozzle
49
is recognized by a component recognition camera
52
. Based on this component posture information, an operation of correcting the suction posture is performed, and the component
44
is mounted at specified position on the circuit board
43
.
In production processes with the component mounting apparatus as described above, it can occur that the operation of the apparatus is stopped due to the state of the apparatus, mis-feedings of components, and the like. When the apparatus is restarted after such a temporary stop, there are some cases where an unmounted component remains stuck to the suction nozzle due to residual pressure of the vacuum of the suction nozzle. In this state as it is, if a switching operation of the suction nozzle is executed, the component would enter the pocket of the nozzle station, causing the apparatus to be damaged.
The suction nozzle for sucking up abnormal-shaped components or small-sized components such as connectors and transformers with less area of flat surfaces is more likely to suffer suction errors due to clogging with dust or the like, so that the maintenance of the suction nozzle needs to be exercised on demand. The operator would take out the suction nozzle from the apparatus and, after cleaning it, accommodate it to the apparatus. In this process, there may occur human errors such as mis-positioning in returning the suction nozzle. Because the suction nozzle is controlled by a controller that controls the operation of the component mounting apparatus, a mis-positioning in returning the nozzle by the operator would, in some cases, cause the component mounting apparatus to be damaged due to inconsistency with the controlling operation of the apparatus.
Besides the above disadvantages, the number of kinds of suction nozzles has been increasing with diversified components to be mounted so that frequent changeovers of suction nozzles are needed in the production of one circuit board. As a result, there has arisen a demand for a stable operation that ensures a reliable execution of the control of suction nozzles.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a component mounting apparatus which prevents occurrences of apparatus errors and human errors and thus performs stable working operation.
In accomplishing these and other aspects, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting apparatus comprising:
a board transfer section for carrying in one of circuit boards to a component mounting position and carrying out the circuit board after component-mounting;
a component feed section for feeding to a specified position a component to be mounted onto the circuit board;
a component mounting section for loading a suction nozzle matching the component to be mounted, sucking up the component from the component feed section and moving the component to the mounting position, and mounting the component to a specified site of the circuit board;
a controller for controlling operations of the individual sections to execute a productional operation of component-mounting onto the circuit boards; and
a remaining-component discarding device for performing an operation of discarding a component which remains at the suction nozzle during a time period for which the component-mounting operation by the component mounting section is kept halted.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the component mounting section selects the suction nozzle matching the component to be mounted, from among a plurality of suction nozzles, and loads the suction nozzle.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting apparatus comprising:
a board transfer section for carrying in one of circuit boards to a component mounting position and carrying out the circuit board after component-mounting;
a component feed section for feeding to a specified position a component to be mounted onto the circuit board;
a component mounting section for selecting and loading a suction nozzle matching the component to be mounted, from among a plurality of suction nozzles, sucking up the component from the component feed section and moving the component to the mounting position, and mounting the component to a specified site of the circuit board;
a controller for controlling operations of the individual sections to execute a productional operation of component-mounting onto the circuit boards; and
a nozzle identifying device for performing an operation of identifying the suction nozzle during a time period for which the component-mounting operation by the component mounting section is kept halted.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting apparatus comprising:
a board transfer section for carrying in one of circuit boards to a component mounting position and carrying out the circuit board after component-mounting;
a component feed section for feeding to a specified position a component to be mounted onto the circuit board; and
a component mounting section for selecting and loading a suction nozzle matching the component to be mounted, from among a plurality of suction nozzles, sucking up the component from the component feed section and moving the component to the mounting position, and mounting the component to a specified site of the circuit board;
a controller for controlling operations of the individual sections to execute a productional operation of component-mounting onto the circuit boards;
a remaining-component discarding device for performing an operation of discarding a component which remains at the suction nozzle during a time period for which the component-mounting operation by

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