Patent ID: 6877541

Claim:
A tape feeder for chip mounters, comprising: a body mounted to a predetermined portion of a chip mounter; a tape feeding unit provided at a front portion of the body to feed a carrier tape by a predetermined pitch, the tape feeding unit comprising: a cam slider reciprocating horizontally and including a restraint slot, the restraint slot having a concave cam section and convex cam sections provided on both sides of the concave cam section; front and rear locators to move up and down while coming into alternate contact with the concave cam section and the convex cam sections by the reciprocating motion of the cam slider, each of the front and rear locators comprising: a pin holder provided at an upper portion of each of the front and rear locators to guide vertical movements of a plurality of lock pins; and a seesaw link provided on each of the front and rear locators to move up and down, and having a base pin to support a bottom of each of the plurality of lock pins; a fixed rail mounted to a predetermined portion of the body to guide a vertical movement of the front locator; a movable rail coupled to the cam slider to guide a vertical movement of the rear locator, the movable rail horizontally moving in a horizontal rail section of the fixed rail by a feeding pitch of the carrier tape; a gate unit to mount the carrier tape and guide the carrier tape when the carrier tape is fed; a vinyl cover discharging unit including first and second discharging gears engaging with each other, with a vinyl cover peeled off the carrier tape being discharged by a predetermined pitch by a rotation of the first and second discharging gears; a drive unit to simultaneously drive an actuating rod of an air cylinder coupled to the tape feeding unit and at least one of the first and second discharging gears of the vinyl cover discharging unit; and a pitch adjusting unit mounted to a predetermined portion of the body to limit a backward movement of the movable rail of the tape feeding unit.