Patent ID: 8863659

Claim:
A screen printing line, comprising: a plurality of screen printing machines arranged in a right and left direction and each configured to carry out screen printing on a circuit substrate; at least one shuttle conveyor each provided between any pair of the adjacent screen printing machines of the plurality of screen printing machines, the adjacent screen printing machines being adjacent to each other, the at least one shuttle conveyor each being configured to receive and pass the circuit substrate; and a controller, wherein: each of the plurality of screen printing machines comprises: a front conveyor including a substrate support device and provided in a front portion of the screen printing machine; a rear conveyor provided in a rear portion of the screen printing machine and configured to allow passage of the circuit substrate; and a printing device configured to carry out the screen printing on the circuit substrate supported by the substrate support device, each of the at least one shuttle conveyor includes: a movable conveyor that is movable at least between a first position continuous to at least one of the front conveyors of the adjacent screen printing machines and a second position continuous to at least one of the rear conveyors of the adjacent screen printing machines, and a conveyor-width changing device that includes a width-changing motor, a belt and a plurality of pulleys that cause the movable conveyor to move to change a conveyor width of the movable conveyor, and the controller is configured to control the movable conveyor to change the conveyor width of the movable conveyor at least one of (a) during a movement of the movable conveyor to one of the first position and the second position, and (b) before a start of the movement of the movable conveyor, when at least two of the plurality of screen machines respectively carry out the screen printing in parallel on circuit substrates having different convey widths from each other.