Patent ID: 8276264

Claim:
A component mounting apparatus comprising: two board transfer devices arranged in parallel relation with each other and each configured to transfer boards in a first direction, each of the board transfer devices being adjustable to alter a transfer way width thereof in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; component supply means for supplying plural kinds of components to be mounted on the boards; a component placing device including component placing head means for picking up the components supplied from the component supply means to mount the picked-up components on the boards and head moving means for moving the component placing head means in at least two directions parallel to a surface of the boards, wherein the component placing device mounts the components simultaneously or alternately on two of the boards which have been transferred by the two board transfer devices to respective component mounting positions; setting means for setting the two board transfer devices to transfer regular boards to be produced on a regular basis or setting one of the two board transfer devices to transfer the regular boards and the other board transfer device to transfer urgent boards to be produced on an urgent basis, the regular boards differing from the urgent boards in kind; and a controller that stores first and second mounting programs to control mounting operations on the regular boards and the urgent boards and configured: (a) until production of the urgent boards is instructed, to control the two board transfer devices and the component placing device so that component mountings on the regular boards are performed on the two board transfer devices in accordance with the first mounting program for the regular boards; and (b) when the production of the urgent boards is instructed, to unload a regular board from the other board transfer device, which has been set by the setting means to transfer the urgent boards, to adjust the transfer way width of the other board transfer device to the width of the urgent boards, and to control the other board transfer device and the component placing device so that component mountings on the urgent boards are performed on the other board transfer device in accordance with the second mounting program for the urgent boards; wherein the controller continues controlling the production of the regular boards on the one board transfer device while controlling the production of the urgent boards on the other board transfer device.