Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6877220?dq=patent:4807115
Timestamp: 2018-01-24 06:53:00
Document Index: 785970719

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Patent US6877220 - Method for feeding a component - Google Patents
An occurrence component lack at a component arrangement position, designated by a mounting program, of a component feed part, which feeds components to be mounted, is determined. Whether a spare component for the lacking component to be mounted is present in a spare component feed area of the component...http://www.google.com/patents/US6877220?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6877220 - Method for feeding a component
Publication number US6877220 B1
Application number US 09/743,349
PCT number PCT/JP1999/005005
Also published as CN1217569C, CN1313024A, DE69901456D1, DE69901456T2, EP1114575A1, EP1114575B1, US7020956, US20020184747, WO2000018208A1
Publication number 09743349, 743349, PCT/1999/5005, PCT/JP/1999/005005, PCT/JP/1999/05005, PCT/JP/99/005005, PCT/JP/99/05005, PCT/JP1999/005005, PCT/JP1999/05005, PCT/JP1999005005, PCT/JP199905005, PCT/JP99/005005, PCT/JP99/05005, PCT/JP99005005, PCT/JP9905005, US 6877220 B1, US 6877220B1, US-B1-6877220, US6877220 B1, US6877220B1
Inventors Takeshi Kuribayashi, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Akihiko Wachi
Patent Citations (20), Referenced by (2), Classifications (34), Legal Events (7)
Method for feeding a component
US 6877220 B1
An occurrence component lack at a component arrangement position, designated by a mounting program, of a component feed part, which feeds components to be mounted, is determined. Whether a spare component for the lacking component to be mounted is present in a spare component feed area of the component feed part is determined, and supply of the component to be mounted from a designated component arrangement position of the component feed part is switched to supply of the spare component from the spare component feed area.
1. A component feed method for supplying a component to be mounted onto a printed circuit board, comprising:
detecting an occurrence of a lack of a component at a designated component arrangement position of a component feed part, wherein the component and the designated component arrangement position are designated by a mounting program;
using a first reading device to read component information from a memory feature in the component feed part;
based on the component information read from the memory feature, determining whether a spare component is in a spare component feed area of the component feed part;
judging whether the spare component is located in the spare component feed area at a spare component arrangement position; and
when the spare component is judged to be located at the spare component arrangement position within the spare component feed area, switching from supply of the component from the designated component arrangement position to supply of the spare component from the spare component arrangement position.
2. The component feed method according to claim 1, wherein
judging whether the spare component is located within the spare component feed area comprises judging whether the spare component is located within a component feed area other than a component feed area designated by the mounting program.
3. The component feed method according to claim 1, wherein
determining, based on the component information read from the memory feature in the component feed part, whether the spare component is in the spare component feed area of the component feed pair comprises determining, based on spare component information previously stored and read from the memory feature in the component feed part, whether the spare component is in the spare component feed area of the component feed part.
4. The component feed method according to claim 1, further comprising:
using the first or another reading device to read previously stored spare component information from a memory feature in the component feed part; and
based on the spare component information read from the memory feature, determining a component arrangement state of the spare component when judged to be in the spare component feed area.
5. A component feed method for supplying a component to be mounted onto a printed circuit board, comprising:
determining whether a spare component is in a spare component feed area of the component feed part; and
when the spare component is judged to be located in the spare component feed area, switching from supply of the component from the designated component arrangement position to supply of the spare component from the spare component feed area.
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for feeding components which are supplied to a component holding member, such as a mounting head or the like, which removes the components from a component feed part and in turn mounts the removed components to a mounting position on a printed board. The present invention also relates to a method for mounting components supplied by the component feed method to the board, and an apparatus for mounting the components supplied by the component feeding apparatus to the board.
Productivity improvement has been required in component mounting apparatuses these days. Particularly, production interruption subsequent to switching of product types (kinds) and lack of components adversely influences productivity, and therefore improvement in this field is strongly demanded.
Components should be set at a designated component feed position at the component feed part. A mounting program indicating the spare component information should be formed for each kind of board in the case of production of a wide variety of bands with a relatively low volume. Moreover, the mounting program should be replaced, or a similar preparation process is needed for switching kinds of boards to be produced. In other words, switching is complicated and takes time, thereby increasing an operator's burden for preparation, management, and the like of the switching.
The present invention is devised to solve the above-described issues, and has for its object to provide a method and an apparatus for feeding components and a method and an apparatus for mounting components, which realize production of higher flexibility, high productivity, and high quality during an exchange mode or alternate operation of automatically switching components with spare components even though component lack has occurred, and enables continuous mounting of components to boards.
a component lack detection device for detecting lack of a component to be mounted at the component arrangement position of the component feed part designated by the mounting program,
a spare component detection judgment device for determining whether or not a spare component for a lacking component to be mounted is loaded in a spare component feed area of the component feed part, and judging whether or not the spare component is located within the spare component feed area, and
FIG. 5A is a schematic explanatory diagram of how spare components are switched at a component feed part in the component mounting apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention, that is, in detail, a schematic diagram of an arrangement example at the component feed part with a component feed area and a spare component feed area;
A component feed method, a component feeding apparatus, a component mounting method, and a component mounting apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be discussed with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the component mounting method including the component feed method according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing a mounting control part 200 of the component mounting apparatus 201 which replaces the control part 12. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 20 is a memory part, and reference numeral 20 a is a mounting program stored in the memory part 20. Reference numeral 20 b is component data stored in the memory part 20 and showing component arrangement data consisting of component arrangement positions at a component feed part 16. Reference numeral 20 c is spare component information having spare component data such as types of spare components, or properties of spare components, or types and properties and arrangement positions of spare components written in the memory part 20. Reference numeral 21 is an input/output control part for controlling inputs and outputs of information and signals from external devices or members to the memory part 20 and control parts 22-26 described below. Reference numeral 22 is a component feed control part functioning as an example of a spare component detection device, for controlling supply of components 5 from parts cassettes 16 a of component feed part 16, and for detecting an occurrence of component lack. Reference numeral 23 is a recognition control part for controlling recognition of positions and attitudes of components 5 sucked and held to a plurality of mounting heads 13 supported by a rotary head, which rotates to pass a component feed position at which the components are supplied from the parts cassettes 16 a of the component feed part 16, and a component mounting position at which the components are mounted to boards 1. Reference numeral 24 is a positioning control part for controlling positioning of the components 5, sucked and held to the mounting heads 13, relative to the boards 1 while correcting positions and attitudes of the components 5 based on a recognition result from the recognition control part 23. Reference numeral 25 is a pressure control part for controlling a press force of the mounting heads 13 to thereby mount the components 5 to the boards 1 while the components are sucked and held by the mounting heads 13. Reference numeral 26 is a height control part for controlling a height of a movement area of the mounting heads 13 relative to the boards 1, while taking detected heights of components already mounted to the boards 1 into consideration, when heights of the components 5 sucked and held by the mounting heads 13 are detected. Subsequently, the components are mounted to the boards 1. Reference numeral 202 is a CPU for controlling operations of each driving, part of the component mounting apparatus 201, for controlling information read and write operations to and from the memory part 20, and for controlling operations of the control parts 21-26. Also as indicated in FIG. 3, the mounting control part 200 is connected to rotary head 301, mounting heads 13, component feed part 16, board recognition device 13 a, component inspection part 13 b, mounting table 14, and component information detection part 18, while controlling not only operations related to determination and judgment and switching of spare components to be detailed later, but also controlling an entire mounting operation.
At a start of production of printed boards 1 by component mounting apparatus 201, under control of CPU 202, respective control parts 21-26 of the mounting control part 200 of FIG. 2 of the component mounting apparatus 201 and mechanical driving parts of the component mounting apparatus 201 are initialized at a mounting start process step (S1) in FIG. 1. In the meantime, a printed board 10 is set to mounting table 14.
Next, at a component take-out and feed process step (S2) in FIG. 1, the CPU 202 reads out component arrangement information in the mounting program 20 a and in component arrangement data of component data 20 b of the memory part 20, for example, Z1=P1, Z2=P2, Z3=P3, . . . Zm=Pm for A-type boards 1 and Z1=P3, Z2=PX, Z3=P1, Z4=PY, . . . , Zm=Pm for B-type boards 1, as shown in FIG. 5B, wherein P1-Pm are types of components 5 and Z1-Zm are arrangement positions of the parts cassettes 16 a at the component feed part 16; that is, arrangement positions of components 5 of respective types.
During a positioning and mounting process step (S4) in FIG. 1, the parts cassette 16 a, which is designated at step (S3) and is judged not to lack a component, is slid to a component feed position of the mounting head 13, where the desired component 5 is sucked and held by the mounting head 13. While this component 5 is suitably controlled by positioning control part 24 and other control parts (for instance, controlled by the positioning control part 24 to be moved to a mounting position while being prevented by a height control part from colliding with other components, and being corrected in position and attitude so as to be mounted at a mounting position), the component 5 is accurately positioned by the mounting head 13 under control of the CPU 202 to the mounting position designated by the mounting program 20 a, and mounted to the printed board 1 on the mounting table 14 as designated by the mounting program 20 a.
During step (S5) of FIG. 1, the CPU 202 judges, based on the mounting program 20 a, whether or not another component 5 to be mounted to the same board 1 remains. The CPU 202 repeats procedures from step (S2) to step (S4) until one sheet of the printed board 1 is completely finished. When a mounting operation is completed, a mounting end process is performed at step (S6) of FIG. 1. A finished board 1 is removed from the mounting table 14 while the CPU 202 performs board removal control.
During the component lack detection process step (S3) in FIG. 1, if the component feed control part 22 judges that a component of the same type as the component 5 to be mounted is absent from component data 20 b, or in other words, as shown in FIGS. 5A-5C, if, for example, a P1-type component arranged at component arrangement position Z1 on a left end of the component feed part 16, is absent, spare component detection judgment process (S10) and spare component switch process (S11), which characterize the component mounting method of the first embodiment (named “a free alternate” operation), are adopted, which will be detailed hereinbelow. Specifically, in the free alternate operation, there is a known device, as a component detecting device, for reading by a reading device a memory feature, such as a bar code or the like, installed in the component feed part, for storing types of components, as is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-164398, during the spare component detection judgment process (S10) of FIG. 1, thereby obtaining stored information to detect components. Referring to FIG. 3, for instance, component information detection part 18, which reads or writes component information from or to a component information memory 17, such as IC or the like arranged in the parts cassette 16 a as one example in the prior art, is adapted to set as a spare component feed area 16 s, component arrangement positions Zn, Zn+1, Zn+2, Zend, other than the component arrangement positions Z1-Zm of a component feed area 16 n generally used at the component feed part 16, in component arrangement data of the mounting program 20 a and component data 20 b. Component type information PX, P1, P1, . . . , PY at component arrangement positions of the spare component feed area 16 s are sequentially read out, whether or not the P1-type spare component for the component P1 to be mounted next is present is judged, and the parts cassette 16 a storing the P1-type spare component is detected within the spare component feed area 16 s of the component feed part 16. In a case where the spare component of the type is not detected, production is stopped at once at the component mounting apparatus 201 under control of the CPU 202 until an operator of the apparatus 201 supplements the P1-type components to the component feed part 16. On the other hand, when the P1-type spare component for the component P1 to be mounted next is detected at arrangement position Zn+1 of the spare component feed area 16 s, during the spare component switch process (S11) of FIG. 11 the CPU 202 temporarily stores in the memory part 20 the P1-type spare component, at the spare component arrangement position Zn+1 in the spare component feed area 16 s, as spare component information 20 c, in place of the P1-type component at arrangement position Z1. Thereafter, component arrangement positions of component arrangement data of the mounting program 20 a and the component data 20 b are switched to a spare component arrangement position in the spare component feed area 16 s for a lacking P1-type component, so that production is continued under a switched condition. Later again, if P1-type spare components at component arrangement position Zn+1 are depleted, the same procedures at (S10) and (S11) are executed, whereby a P1-type spare component at component arrangement position Zn+2 is used to continue production.
The spare component feed area 16 s may not be fixed in position in the component feed part 16, but the component feed part 16 in its entirety may be allotted as the spare component feed area 16 s. Or, the component feed part 16 is divided to a plurality of blocks, and one block thereof including a specified number of arrangement units, or some blocks, are assigned as the spare component feed area 16 s; or, component arrangement positions Zn-Zend, which are part of component arrangement positions Z1-Zend of the component feed part 16, can be designated as the spare component feed area 16 s. Since the spare component feed area 16 s can be freely set in the component feed part 16, more preferable and more flexible free alternate operation is realized.
Spare component information 20 c is not limited to data stored that is different from component arrangement data of the mounting program 20 a or component data 20 b, and can be information included in the mounting program 20 a or component arrangement data of component data 20 b.
A component feed method, a component feeding apparatus, a component mounting method, and a component mounting apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4.
A difference of the second embodiment from the first embodiment is a manner of how to input component information. The component information detection part 1118 of the component mounting apparatus 211 is arranged at a side part of the board recognition part 113 b fixed to a side part of the mounting head 113, which can be moved by the XY robot in an X direction and a Y direction orthogonal to the X direction. Component type information, and the like, stored in component information memories 117, such as ICs or the like, at parts cassettes 116 a, a bulk cassette 116 b, and parts trays 116 d removed from a parts tray container part 116 c of the component feed part 16, can be detected by the component information detection part 118. In contrast to the first embodiment, wherein component information in component data 20 b or spare component information 20 c stored beforehand in the memory part 20 is utilized to detect spare components within the component feed part 16, according to the second embodiment component information is not stored preliminarily, and the mounting head 113 is moved to determine component type information, and the like stored in the component information memory 117, such as an IC or the like, of the parts cassette 116 a, bulk cassette 116 b, parts tray 116 d removed from the parts tray container part 116 c of the component feed part 116, via the component information detection part 18 fixed to the mounting head 113. Determined information is then stored as component data 20 b or spare component information 20 c in the memory part 20 via input/output control part 21. Complicated work of manually storing component type information in the memory part 20 as component data 20 b or spare component information 20 c is eliminated. The second embodiment is an application of the first embodiment to a mounting apparatus of a multi-functional type adapted to receive components also from trays, and the like, while exerting the same effect and action as the first embodiment. Each of the parts cassette 116 a, bulk cassette 116 b, and parts tray 116 d removed from the parts tray container part 116 c of the component feed part 116, is provided with information memory according to the second embodiment, and therefore components can be mounted more correctly.
A two-dimensional bar code, or known QR code (quick response code of a matrix expressing numbers or characters in a machine readable form by a combination of cells (points) and spaces), may be applied as the component information memory 1117 to each component, e.g., QFP or CSP integrated circuit or a semiconductor component. The board recognition device 113 a may be used as the component information detection part 118 to read information.
A component feed method, a component feeding apparatus, a component mounting method, and a component mounting apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
A component feed method, a component feeding apparatus, a component mounting method, and a component mounting apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention features a spare component switch process (S11A). As shown in FIG. 7, in a spare component switch process, a component mounting order reorganization process (S12) of FIG. 7 is performed at a component mounting order reorganization process part 240, indicated by a chain line in FIG. 6, after a spare component switch process (S11) of FIG. 1 is performed.
According to a component feed method, a component feeding apparatus, a component mounting method, and a component mounting apparatus according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention, component feed part 16, 116 in its entirety is treated as a spare component feed area 16 s to produce optional types of boards 1 in the mounting apparatus 201 of FIG. 3 or mounting apparatus 211 of FIG. 4. At a production start process (step S1 of FIG. 1), component feed control part 22 detects information of component types, component arrangement positions, and the like of the entire component feed part 16, 116, so that component arrangement data of component data 20 b of component feed control part 22, to be used by mounting program 20 a, is automatically generated for production. In this case, it is enough to read only component arrangement data during a spare component detection judgment process. If a plurality of the same components are detected, these may be stored in spare component information.
With this constitution, components can be mounted correctly without an operator's awareness of a set position of parts cassettes 16 a or 116 a relative to the component feed part 16, 116 (referred to as “free layout production”). Furthermore, highly productive and high-quality production is enabled in association with a component mounting order reorganization process described in the fourth embodiment ((S12) of FIG. 7).
Component arrangement data of component data 20 b is containable in mounting program 20 a.
A spare component is not necessarily a substitute of the same type. A substitute of the same characteristic or even a substitute manufactured by a different maker and having a different characteristic (e.g., temperature characteristic), which matters little, is utilizable. In that case, whether the spare component is proper or not is judged on the basis of a component characteristic or the like, not the component type as above, and information of the component characteristic or the like is stored for this purpose. Also, information of both component type and component characteristic can be used to make the judgment.
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US6058599 * Nov 18, 1997 May 9, 2000 Yamaha Hatsudoki Kabushiki Kaisha Mounting method and apparatus therefore
US6085408 * Jun 25, 1998 Jul 11, 2000 Yamagata Casio Co., Ltd. Part mounting device, part mounting method, and storage medium storing program thereof
US6427320 * Sep 29, 2000 Aug 6, 2002 Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. Electronic component-mounting apparatus and component-feeding device therefor
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JPS60206098A Title not available
U.S. Classification 29/832, 29/830, 414/225.01, 29/834, 29/837, 29/742, 29/833, 414/226.01, 414/222.02, 29/836, 414/222.03
International Classification H05K13/02, H05K13/08, H05K13/04
Cooperative Classification Y10T29/53187, Y10T29/49126, Y10T29/49826, Y10T29/53178, H05K13/08, Y10T29/49764, Y10T29/53035, Y10T29/53087, Y10T29/53174, H05K13/0452, Y10T29/49131, Y10T29/49137, Y10T29/4913, H05K13/0417, Y10T29/5303, Y10T29/49133, Y10T29/49139
European Classification H05K13/04B, H05K13/08, H05K13/04E
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:KURIBAYASHI, TAKESHI;UCHIYAMA, HIROSHI;WACHI, AKIHIKO;REEL/FRAME:011524/0672;SIGNING DATES FROM 20001005 TO 20001006