Abstract:
A method of supporting a fragile board by a plurality of supporting members formed of respective elastic materials. The method includes steps of (a) preparing a plurality of first and second supporting members as the supporting members such that the second supporting members have higher compression modulus than the first supporting members; (b) arranging the first and second supporting members on a plane such that each of the first supporting members is adjacent to a corresponding one of the second supporting members and such that each of the first supporting members has a larger height from the plane than each of the second supporting members; and (c) positioning the first and second supporting members under the board, whereby the board is supported at a lower surface thereof by the supporting members.
Abstract:
An electric-component holding head, including a holder member including a nozzle-hold portion which holds a suction nozzle, and having a negative-pressure passage through which a negative pressure is supplied to the suction nozzle so that the suction nozzle holds an electric component by applying the negative pressure thereto, a filter which is provided in the negative-pressure passage and removes foreign matters present in an air passing through the filter, the holder member having an outer surface and a filter-insert hole which has an opening in the outer surface and communicates between the outer surface and the negative-pressure passage so that the filter is inserted from outside the holder member via the filter-insert hole into the negative-pressure passage, and a closure member which closes the opening of the filter-insert hole.
Abstract:
A method of supplying electric components (nullECsnull) with an EC supplying apparatus including an EC-supply table including a displaceable table displaceable in a reference direction, and EC-supply units provided on the displaceable table such that respective EC-supply portions of the units are arranged along a line parallel to the reference direction, each of the EC-supply units including a driven member and a carrier-tape feeding device which feeds, based on the driven member being driven, a carrier tape carrying the ECs at a EC-carry pitch, at a tape-feed pitch equal to a quotient obtained by dividing the EC-carry pitch by an integral number, so that the ECs are positioned, one by one, at the EC-supply portion of each unit, a table displacing device which displaces the displaceable table and positions the EC-supply portion of each EC-supply unit, at an EC-supply position, a drive member which is provided near the EC-supply position, and a drive device which drives the drive member which in turn drives the driven member of each EC-supply unit, the method including the step of causing the drive member to drive the driven member of each EC-supply unit being displaced with the displaceable table, while causing the drive member to follow the driven member being displaced, so that a portion of a carrier-tape feeding operation and/or a tape-feed preparing operation of the carrier-tape feeding device of each unit is performed while each unit is displaced with the displaceable table.
Abstract:
A method of detecting a relative positioning error between a fiducial-mark imaging device and a substrate-holding device in an electric-component mounting system wherein the fiducial-mark imaging device is arranged to take an image of at least one substrate fiducial mark provided on a circuit substrate, and a positioning error of the circuit substrate as held by the substrate-holding device is detected on the basis of the image of the at least one substrate fiducial mark, so that an electric component is mounted by a mounting head onto the circuit substrate, so as to eliminate the positioning error of the circuit substrate, wherein the fiducial-mark imaging device is operated to take an image of at least one holding-device fiducial mark provided on the substrate-holding device, and the relative positioning error between the fiducial-mark imaging device and the substrate-holding device is detected on the basis of a positioning error of the image of the holding-device fiducial mark within an imaging area of the at least one fiducial-mark imaging device.
Abstract:
Method and device for supplying electric components, using two component supply tables each including a feeder support structure and a plurality of component feeders mounted on the feeder support structure, each component feeder accommodating a group of electric components of one kind and arranged to successively supply the electronic components such that a combination of electric components of different kinds that can be supplied from the component feeders on one of the two tables is the same as that of electric components of different kinds that can be supplied from the component feeders on the other table, and wherein a first table which is one of the two tables is operated to supply the electric components, while a second table which is the other table is held in an off state, and the first table is held in an off state while the second table is operated to supply the electric components, after the first table has been exhausted of the electric components of any kind, and wherein the first ands second tables cooperate to supply the electric components after the second table has been exhausted of the electric components of any kind. Component mounting method and system using the component supplying method and device are also disclosed.
Abstract:
Method of transferring an electric component from a component supply device to a suction nozzle of a component-holding head, wherein a relative position between a sucking surface of the suction nozzle and an axis of rotation of the component-holding head is obtained, and the component-holding head and the component supply device are moved relative to each other on the basis of the obtained relative position, so as to minimize an error of relative positioning between the sucking surface and a predetermined sucking position of the electric component positioned at the component-supply portion. The head and the component supply device are then moved toward each other, for transferring the electronic components from the component supply device to the suction nozzle. Also disclosed is an electric-component mounting system arranged to practice the method before the electric component is mounted on a circuit substrate.
Abstract:
A suction nozzle for applying a suction to an object and thereby holding the object, the suction nozzle including a nozzle portion having an end surface, and a suction passage formed in the nozzle portion and opening in the end surface thereof, the end surface providing a suction surface that applies the suction to the object and thereby holds the object. At least a free end portion of the nozzle portion has a shape whose diameter gradually increases in a direction from the end surface thereof toward a base end thereof opposite to the end surface.
Abstract:
A method of mounting an electric component on a circuit substrate, including the steps of moving one of a suction nozzle and an electric-component supplying device toward the other of the nozzle and the supplying device, so that the nozzle applies a suction to the component supplied by the supplying device and thereby receives the component, moving one of the nozzle and the substrate toward the other of the nozzle and the substrate, so that the nozzle mounts the component on the substrate, taking an image of at least a portion of the component held by the nozzle, as seen in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the nozzle, in a state in which the nozzle takes a known position in the axial direction, determining, based on image data representing the taken image, a position of a mounted surface of the electric component that is opposite to a sucked surface of the component sucked by the nozzle, and controlling, based on the determined position, a movement of the nozzle toward one or each of the supplying device and the substrate, or vice versa.
Abstract:
A system for mounting circuit components on a circuit substrate, including a circuit-substrate supporting device which supports the circuit substrate, a circuit-component mounting device which mounts, at a circuit-component mounting position, the circuit components on the circuit substrate supported by the circuit-substrate supporting device, and a circuit-substrate carry-out device which carries out the circuit substrate on which the circuit components have been mounted, the circuit-substrate carry-out device comprising a removing device which removes the circuit substrate from the circuit-substrate supporting device, and a parallel-direction carry-out device which receives the circuit substrate from the removing device and carries out the circuit substrate in a parallel direction substantially parallel to a plane of the circuit substrate, the circuit substrate being transferred from the circuit-substrate supporting device to the removing device in a first direction substantially perpendicular to the plane of the circuit substrate, and is transferred from the removing device to the parallel-direction carry-out device in a second direction opposite to the first direction.
Abstract:
In an electronic component mounting apparatus capable of replacing a component placing device with any of plural other component placing devices different in performance, the distance between the center line of a component pick-up portion of a replaced component placing device and the optical axis of a board recognizing camera is calibrated easily and precisely. A movable table is positioned so that a reference mark provided on a base frame to reside in the visual field of a component recognizing camera comes in the visual field of a board recognizing camera and that at the same time, the end of the component pick-up portion of the replaced component placing device comes in the visual filed of the component recognizing camera. The board recognizing camera is used to detect the positional relation of the optical axis thereof relative to the reference mark, while the component recognizing camera is used to detect the positional relations of the optical axis thereof relative to the reference mark and relative to the center line of the component pick-up portion. These detected positional relations are used to calculate the positional relation between the optical axis of the board recognizing camera and the center line of the component pick-up portion.