Mounting head exchange arrangement for part mounting machine

Abstract: A mounting head exchange arrangement for a part mounting machine, which includes a moving unit as a part mounting portion for mounting parts onto a circuit board and the like, head holding portions, and a plurality of mounting heads provided at the head holding portions. Each of the mounting heads has a suction nozzle for attracting parts, and sets of position regulating claws for effecting positioning of the attracted parts. The mounting heads provided at the holding portions are so arranged that a predetermined mounting head is selected from them and detachably mounted to the moving unit. Thus, the mounting heads each provided with the position regulating claws and the suction nozzle may be exchanged as one unit.

Description: The invention relates to a part mounting machine comprising a plurality of mounting heads, each of said mounting heads having a suction nozzle for attracting part thereto and sets of position regulating claws for effecting positioning of the attracted parts, a predetermined one of the mounting heads being selected for effecting the mounting of parts onto a printed circuit board. An example is the mounting of electronic parts or components onto an electronic circuit board. From EP-A-15 55 12 an automatic apparatus for mounting electronic parts is known, comprising a plurality of mounting heads of the kind having a suction nozzle for attracting parts thereto, and also having adjustment means for adjusting the position of the parts. Various mounting heads are supported on a rotatable carrier, so that a selected mounting head can be brought into a mounting position. Conventionally, there have been proposed various part mounting machines for mounting electronic parts onto an electronic circuit board or the like, in which a mounting head is displaceably provided between a part supply portion and the circuit board so as to attract the electronic part by a suction or attraction nozzle provided on said mounting head for mounting said part onto a predetermined position on the circuit board. Similarly, for improved accuracy at the part mounting position, there is disclosed in US-A-4 290 732 an arrangement adapted to regulate positional deviation of an attracted part with respect to an axis of a suction nozzle by position regulating claws. There are cases where exchanging of suction nozzles or mounting heads is required depending on sizes of parts to be attracted, kinds of parts to be dealt with, or nature of work involved, etc., and JP-A-59-69992 discloses an exchange arrangement for automatically effecting such exchanging, in which a plurality of straight tools such as suction nozzles or the like are supported by a holder, and the necessary tool is selectively picked out from the holder, by fitting a holding member at the side of the mounting head main body, into the upper end portion of said tool for subsequent raising of the holding member. However, by the exchange arrangement as described above intended to exchange only the suction nozzles, transfer of the parts in a state where they are accurately regulated for position has been very difficult, and it is desirable to arrange mounting heads each having a suction nozzle and position regulating claws corresponding to the part configurations, to be exchangeable, but, in that case, there has been involved such a problem that, due to the mechanism, etc. required for opening and closing of the position regulating claws, construction of the mounting head itself, and that of the holder and function thereof are extremely complicated. It is an object of the present invention to provide a part mounting machine comprising a plurality of exchangeable mounting heads, which is relatively simple in constructin and capable of exchanging mounting heads each having position regulating claws and a suction nozzle, as one unit. The part mounting machine according to the invention is characterized by a plurality of holding means each having a holding portion for releasably holding one of the plurality of mounting heads; the moving unit being movable for selection of a predetermined mounting head from the holding means; the holding means being movable relative to the moving unit for transferring the selected mounting head to the moving unit; the moving unit detachably holding the selected mounting head for mounting parts onto the circuit board. Preferable embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. Since it is only required to provide, in plurality, the holding means having the holding portion for releasably holding the support flange formed on the mounting head from the side portion, the construction is simplified, while the support shaft at the side for mounting the head is only required to effect the movement, and rising or lowering functions in the similar manner as in the part mounting for the exchange of the mounting heads. Therefore, in spite of the simple construction, the mounting heads may be exchanged through an extremely simple operation without requiring any particular functions therefor. The mounting head may be positively held by the compression reaction applied between the support flange and function flange, and moreover, the rising and lowering functions of the support shaft can be utilized for exerting the holding force. Therefore, the construction is also simplified, without requiring any operating members, driving source, etc. at the side of the holding means for consequent reduction in cost. By a part mounting machine according to an embodiment of the present invention as described above, since the pair of position regulating claws are first opened or closed by the displacement of the second sleeve, and upon further displacement of the second sleeve, the first sleeve is also displaced so as to open or close another pair of position regulating claws, there is no possibility that a part held by the head is undesirably fixed in a posture where it is inclined. Moreover, since the position regulating claws are adapted to be opened or closed in association with the sleeves, the open/close mechanism is simple in construction and thus, accurate position regulation may be readily achieved. Moreover, only the dual sleeves are required for the operating portion, the overall construction is simple to provide a mounting head in a compact size at low cost. These and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the preferred embodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which; Fig. 1 is a front elevational view, partly in section, of a mounting head exchange arrangement according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the mounting head exchange arrangement of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the mounting head exchange arrangement of Fig. 1, Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view showing an essential portion of the mounting head exchange arrangement of Fig. 1, Figs. 5 and 6 are views similar to Fig. 1 for explaining states of functioning thereof, Fig. 7 is a vertical sectional view of a mounting head employed in the mounting head exchange arrangement of Fig. 1, Fig. 8 is a side elevational view of the mounting head of Fig. 7, Fig. 9 is a cross section taken along the line IX - IX in Fig. 7, Figs. 10 to 12 are side elevational views of the mounting head respectively showing states of functioning thereof, Fig. 13 is a fragmentary side elevational view, partly in section, showing construction of a moving unit, and Fig. 14 is a perspective view showing a part mounting machine according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Before the description of the present invention proceeds, it is to be noted that like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout the accompanying drawings. Referring now to the drawings, there is shown in Fig. 14 a part mounting machine according to the present invention. The part mounting machine generally includes a housing, a part supply portion 1 provided on a front tabular portion of the housing, a moving unit 5 as a part mounting portion to which a mounting head 2 is attached for displacement, a transfer device 3 for circuit boards, and an exchange arrangement 4 for the mounting heads directly related to the present invention. The mounting head 2 is attached to the moving unit 5 as the part mounting portion for mounting parts, through displacement in X - Y direction between a circuit board positioned at a predetermined position in a path from the part supply portion 1 to the transfer device 3 and the exchange arrangement 4. Prior to the description of the mounting head exchange arrangement 4, detailed constructions of the mounting head 2 will be explained with particular reference to Figs. 7 to 9. The mounting head 2 includes a hollow shaft 11 formed with a support flange 12 at its upper end, and a suction nozzle 13 slidably received in the other end of the hollow shaft 11 so as to be normally urged to project outwardly from said other end. At the upper end of said hollow shaft 11, there is formed a fixing hole 16 which receives a fitting portion 15 formed at the lower end of the hollow support shaft 14 movably depending downwardly from the moving unit 5 as shown in Fig. 13. The support flange 12 is provided with a stopper portion 17 resiliently projecting into the fixing hole 16 so as to be engaged with an engaging groove 15a formed on the fitting portion 15 referred to above. At the upper portion of the fitting portion 15 of the support shaft 14, an abutting plate 18 with a spigot joint to be abutted against the upper surface of the support flange 12 is fixed, while a rotation preventing pin 20 to be engaged with a pin hole 19 formed in the support flange 12 is provided to project from the abutting plate 18. Over the hollow shaft 11, a support cylindrical member 21 is slidably fitted externally. This support cylindrical member 21 is prevented from falling off downwardly by a retaining ring 22 fitted around the lower end portion of the hollow shaft 11, and is also urged downwardly by a compression spring 23. At an intermediate portion of the above support cylindrical member 21, a guide pin 24 extending inwardly and outwardly through its peripheral wall is installed, with the inner end of the pin 24 being fitted in a guide groove 11a of the hollow shaft 11 for preventing rotation. Moreover, at the lower portion of this support cylindrical member 21, two pairs of position regulating claws 25 and 26 are pivotally connected for opening and closing by pins 27, and normally urged in the opening direction by springs 28 provided between said claws and the cylindrical member 21. The upper portions of the position regulating claws 25 and 26 are extended outwardly slantwise, with rollers 29 being provided at upper ends thereof. Over the outer peripheral surface of the support cylindrical member 21, a first sleeve 31 is slidably fitted, while a second sleeve 32 is further slidably fitted over the outer peripheral surface of said first sleeve 31. At the position above the claws 25 and 26, on the outer peripheral surface of the support cylindrical member 21, an annular flange 30a is provided to support the lower edges of the sleeves 31 and 32. A spring receiver 33 is engaged with a retaining ring 30b fitted on the upper end of the support cylindrical member 21, with compression springs 34 and 35 being provided between the spring receiver 33 and the respective sleeves 31 and 32. The outer end of the guide pin 24 referred to above is engaged with guide holes 31a and 32a formed in the sleeves 31 and 32 for prevention of rotation. A function flange 36 is formed to extend outwardly from the upper end outer periphery of the second sleeve 32. On the outer periphery in the vicinity of the upper end of the first sleeve 31, a retaining ring 37 which engages the upper end of the second sleeve 32 is fitted, with a proper gap being provided between the upper end of the second sleeve 32 and the retaining ring 37. Above the upper end of the first sleeve 31, a stopper 38 of this first sleeve 31 is disposed at the under surface of the spring receiver 33 through a proper gap. An engaging plate 39 for engaging the rollers 29 of the position regulating claws 25 is provided to extend outwardly in a diametrical direction from the lower edge of the first sleeve 31, while another engaging plate 40 for engaging the rollers 29 of the position regulating claws 26 is similarly provided to extend in a diametrical direction from the lower edge of the second sleeve 32. As shown in Fig. 13, the moving unit 5 is provided with a flange receiving member 50 for supporting the function flange 36 of the mounting head 2 from the lower portion. The compression springs 35 and 34 for urging the second and first sleeves 32 and 31, and the spring 23 for urging the support cylindrical member 21 are designed to have smaller spring constants in that order, and when the support shaft 14 is displaced to project downwardly in the state where the function flange 36 is supported by the flange receiving member 50, the hollow shaft 11 and the support cylindrical member 21 are first lowered as one unit, and after the cylindrical member 21 is relatively displaced with respect to the second and first sleeves 32 and 31, the hollow shaft 11 is arranged to be lowered with respect to the support cylindrical member 21. Referring particularly to Figs. 1 to 4, details of the exchange arrangement 4 for exchanging the mounting heads with respect to the moving unit 5 will be described hereinafter. As is seen in the drawings, three sets of upper and lower guide rods 42 are disposed in a parallel relation to each other between a pair of spaced confronting brackets 41. On the guide rods 42 for each pair, a holding member 43 is displaceably mounted. Each of the holding members 43 includes a movable member 44 displaceably supported by the guide rods 42 and the holding portion 45 for the mounting head 2, disposed at the upper portion of the movable member 44. In the top plan view, the holding portion 45 is formed generally in U-shape having a cut-out portion at one side in the direction of movement of the movable member 44 so as to provide opposed support pieces 46. As is most clearly seen in Fig. 4, holding grooves 47 are formed at the inner sides of the support pieces 46 so as to receive the outer peripheral portion of the support flange 12 of the mounting head 2, while a flange receiver 48 for receiving the function flange 36 of the mounting head 2 is provided below the support pieces 46. The flange receiver 48 is so disposed as to receive the function flange 36 in a state where compression reaction is applied between the support flange 12 and the function flange 36. Moreover, on the holding portion 45 at a portion intermediate between the support pieces 46, a positioning pin 49 for the mounting head 2 which engages a notched portion (not shown) formed on the outer periphery of the support flange 12 is disposed. By the above construction, as shown in Figs. 7 and 13, the mounting head 2 is held by the moving unit 5, with the fitting portion 15 formed at the lower end of the support shaft 14 for the moving unit 5 being fitted in the fixing hole 16 of the hollow shaft 11 for the mounting head 2, and also, with the function flange 36 being supported by the flange receiver 50. In the state as shown in Figs. 7 and 8, the support shaft 14 is in the raised position, and the suction nozzle 13 has been retreated upwardly, with the support cylindrical member 21 being also located in the upper position, while the engaging plates 39 and 40 of the first and second sleeves 31 and 32 are in engagement with the rollers 29 of the respective position regulating claws 25 and 26, which are held in the closed state. When the support shaft 14 is displaced to project downwardly from the above state, the hollow shaft 11, the support cylindrical member 21 and the first sleeve 31 are simultaneously moved downwardly, but the second sleeve 32 is relatively raised with respect to the support cylindrical member 21, since the function flange 36 is supported by the flange receiver 50, with consequent rising of the engaging plate 40 of the sleeve 32 to be spaced from the rollers 29 of the position regulating claws 26, and therefore, the position regulating claws 26 are to be opened by the urging force of the springs 28. Thereafter, upon further displacement of the support shaft 14, the upper end of the second sleeve 32 engages the retaining ring 37 of the first sleeve 31, and said first and second sleeves 31 and 32 are raised as one unit relatively with respect to the support cylindrical member 21, whereby another pair of position regulating claws 25 are to be opened as shown in Fig. 11. Upon further projection of the support shaft 14 in the downward direction, the first and second sleeves 31 and 32 engage the stopper 38 at the upper end of the support cylindrical member 21, and thereafter, as shown in Fig. 12, the hollow shaft 11 is lowered, with the support cylindrical member 21 stopped, so that the suction nozzle 13 at the lower portion of the shaft 11 is to project downwardly. In the above state, when the support shaft 14 is raised after the part has been attracted by the suction nozzle 13, in the reverse order to the above function, only the hollow shaft 11 is first raised for retreatment of the suction nozzle 13, with subsequent rising of the support cylindrical member 21 also. Thus, in the first place, the rollers 29 of the claws 25 engage the engaging plate 39 of the first sleeve 31 to close said claws 25, and thereafter, the first sleeve 31 is also raised for the engagement of the rollers 29 of the claws 26 with the engaging plate 40 of the second sleeve 32, thereby to close said position regulating claws 26. Thus, subsequent to attraction of the part by the suction nozzle 13, positional regulation of the part is first effected in one direction by the first pair of the position regulating claws 25, and then, another positional regulation is effected in the other direction by the second pair of the position regulating claws 26. Therefore, positive positional regulations may be effected even if the part is attracted in an inclined posture. In the case where it is required to exchange the mounting head 2 attached to the support shaft 14 of the moving unit 5, by a mounting head of other kinds, for example, owing to necessity for altering a diameter of the suction nozzle 13 due to change of the kind of parts to be attracted, the moving unit 5 is displaced up to the position of the exchange arrangement 4 as shown in Fig. 1 so as to position the mounting head 2 at the moving end of the holding member 43 having the empty holding portion 45, and the support shaft 14 is properly lowered to bring the support flange 12 to a height equal to that of the holding grooves 47. It is to be noted here that the flange receiving member 50 of the moving unit 5 and the flange receiver 48 of the holding portion 45 are set at the same height. Subsequently, as shown in Fig. 5, the holding member 43 is displaced toward the mounting head 2 so as to receive the support flange 12 in the holding grooves 47 for supporting, while the function flange 36 is received by the flange receiver 48. Thereafter, the support shaft 14 is raised to withdraw its fitting portion 15 out of the fixing hole 16 to hold the mounting head 2 by the holding member 43, and said holding member 43 is returned to the original position. Thus, the mounting head 2 is positively held at the holding portion 45 by the compression reaction acting between the support flange 12 and the function flange 36. In the next step, after displacing the moving unit 5 to confront the holding member 43 holding the desired mounting head 2, the holding member 43 is moved to bring the mounting head 2 held thereby to a position immediately below the support shaft 14 as shown in Fig. 5, with the function flange 36 thereof being supported by the flange receiving member 50. Subsequently, the support shaft 14 is lowered to fit its fitting portion 15 into the fixing hole 16 for attaching the mounting head 2 to the moving unit 5. Then, as shown in Fig. 6, the empty holding member 43 is returned to the original position, thereby completing the exchange of the mounting heads. It should be noted that the foregoing embodiment may be modified in various ways. For example, it may be so modified that, the flange receiving member 50 is arranged to be pivotable upwardly or downwardly between a horizontal posture and a stand-by attitude inclined downwardly, thereby to omit the flange receiver 48 at the side of the exchange arrangement 4.

Claims: A part mounting machine comprising a plurality of mounting heads (2); each of said mounting heads (2) having a suction nozzle (13) for attracting parts thereto and sets of position regulating claws (25, 26) for effecting positioning of the attracted parts; a predetermined one of the mounting heads (2) being selected for effecting the mounting of parts onto a circuit board; characterized by a plurality of holding means (43) each having a holding portion (45) for releasably holding one of the plurality of mounting heads (2); the moving unit (5) being movable for selection of a predetermined mounting head (2) from the holding means (43); the holding means (43) being movable relative to the moving unit (5) for transferring the selected mounting head (2) to the moving unit (5); the moving unit (5) detachably holding the selected mounting head (2) for mounting parts onto the circuit board. A part mounting machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said mounting heads (2) are formed, at their upper end, with a support flange (12) for holding the mounting heads (2) in the holding means (43). A part mounting machine as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said moving unit (5) is provided with a support shaft (14) having a fitting portion (15) formed at its lower end. A part mounting machine as claimed in claim 3, wherein each of said mounting heads (2) is formed, at its upper end, with a fixing hole (16) into which said fitting portion (15) of said support shaft (14) is inserted for engagement. A part mounting machine as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 4, wherein said holding means (43) are arranged in a parallel relation to each other. A part mounting machine as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein each of said mounting heads (2) includes a support cylindrical member (21) through which a hollow shaft (11) provided with said suction nozzle (13) at its lower end is axially displaceably inserted, a first sleeve (31) slidably fitted over the outer periphery of said support cylindrical member (21), and a second sleeve (32) also slidably fitted over said first sleeve (31), with two sets of the position regulating claws (25, 26) adapted to be selectively opened or closed in association with a sliding movements of said sleeves (31, 32) being movably attached to said support cylindrical member (21) for opening and closing so that both of the sleeves (31, 32) are slid simultaneously through engagement of the second sleeve (32) with the first sleeve (31) after sliding movement of said second sleeve (32) by a predetermined amount. A part mounting machine as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said holding means (43) is each arranged to be displaceable in the directions of insertion and withdrawal of said support flange (12) of said mounting head (2). A part mounting machine as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein each of the mounting heads (2) comprises a function flange (36) axially and resiliently displaceable so as to selectively open or close said position regulating claws (25, 26) for positioning of parts attracted by a suction nozzle (13) provided at its lower portion; and the holding portions (45) of the holding means (43) releasably holding the support flange formed (12) on each of said mounting heads (2) from its side portion and also for supporting said function flange (36) in a state where compression reaction is applied between said support flange (12) and said function flange (36).

Inventors: FUJIWARA KOUJI, HIRAI WATARU, FUJIWARA, KOUJI, HIRAI, WATARU
Applicants: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD, MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
Application year: 1987
Main classification: H05K13
IPC codes: H05K13