JP7584041B2 - Component mounting device and component mounting method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a component mounting device and a component mounting method.

For example, there is a component mounting device that mounts electronic components and other parts onto a substrate (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2019-61989 A

Recently, there has been a demand for component mounting devices and methods that simplify the configuration while improving work efficiency.

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a component mounting device and a component mounting method that can solve the above problems while simplifying the configuration and improving work efficiency.

In order to achieve the above object, the component mounting device of the present invention is a component mounting device that mounts components on a mounting point of a board brought into a working area, and includes a mounting nozzle that holds a component and mounts it on the board, a motor that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle, a mounting nozzle height detection unit that detects the height of the mounting nozzle, and a control unit. The control unit includes a mounting point height measurement unit that measures the height of the mounting point based on the height of the mounting nozzle detected by the mounting nozzle detection unit when the mounting nozzle holding a component mounts a component on the mounting point and the thickness of the component, a mounting point height estimation unit that calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which a component is not mounted based on the heights of the multiple mounting points measured by the mounting point height measurement unit, a target position calculation unit that calculates a target height when the mounting nozzle holding a component is lowered toward the mounting point based on the estimated height of the mounting point and the thickness of the component to be mounted on the mounting point, and a motor control unit that controls the motor based on the target height.

The component mounting method of the present invention is a component mounting method for mounting components on mounting points of a board brought into a work area, in which a control unit controls a mounting nozzle holding a component to mount the component on the mounting point of the board, the control unit uses a mounting nozzle height detection unit that detects the height of the mounting nozzle to measure the height of the mounting point based on the height of the mounting nozzle detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the mounting nozzle mounts the component on the mounting point and the thickness of the component, the control unit calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which a component is not mounted based on the measured heights of the multiple mounting points, the control unit calculates a target height for lowering the mounting nozzle holding a component toward the mounting point based on the estimated height of the mounting point and the thickness of the component to be mounted on the mounting point, and the control unit controls a motor that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle based on the target height to lower the mounting nozzle toward the mounting point.

The present invention makes it possible to improve work efficiency while simplifying the configuration.

Schematic plan view of a component mounting device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a bottom perspective view of a take-out head according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a bottom perspective view of a mounting head according to a first embodiment; Schematic diagram showing a tip of a take-out nozzle according to the first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a tip portion of a take-out nozzle according to a first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a tip portion of a mounting nozzle according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a tip portion of a mounting nozzle according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing an internal structure of a main body of a mounting head according to a first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an internal structure of a main body of a mounting head according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of the main body of the take-out head according to the first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a relay stage according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view of a relay stage according to a first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a relay stage according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a peripheral configuration of a brush driving mechanism according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a peripheral configuration of a brush driving mechanism according to a first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view of a substrate transport unit according to a first embodiment before the substrate is lifted; FIG. 13 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view of the substrate transport unit after the substrate has been lifted in the first embodiment; Block diagram of a control system of the component mounting device of the first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a head unit control unit according to a first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a loaded program according to the first embodiment. A flowchart showing a first reference height setting process according to the first embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a state in which the bottom end surface of the mounting nozzle is in contact with the mounting surface. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a state in which the mounting nozzle rises from the mounting surface. A flowchart showing a second reference height setting process according to the first embodiment. FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram for explaining the flow of processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 23; FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram for explaining the flow of processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 23; FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a method for calculating a target position by a target position calculation unit according to the first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a flow of a series of component mounting operations by the component mounting device of the first embodiment. Flowchart regarding part pick-up processing according to the first embodiment FIG. 28 is a schematic diagram for explaining the flow of processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 27; FIG. 28 is a schematic diagram for explaining the flow of processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 27; FIG. 28 is a schematic diagram for explaining the flow of processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 27; A graph showing how the output value of the height detector changes when the onboard nozzle is lowered in response to a command from the operation control center. Flowchart of component mounting process according to the first embodiment FIG. 30 is a schematic diagram for explaining the flow of processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 29; FIG. 30 is a schematic diagram for explaining the flow of processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 29; FIG. 30 is a schematic diagram for explaining the flow of processing according to the flowchart of FIG. 29; Flowchart of mounting point height estimation process according to the first embodiment FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a state in which nine designated mounting points are designated from among a plurality of mounting points on a board according to the first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing an example in which the substrate of the first embodiment has a plurality of divided substrates; FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the component mounting device of the first embodiment performs narrow adjacent mounting; FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the component mounting device of the first embodiment performs narrow adjacent mounting; Flowchart of component mounting process according to the second embodiment Flowchart of mounting point height estimation process according to the second embodiment Schematic plan view of a component mounting device according to a modified example. FIG. 13 is a schematic plan view of a component mounting device according to another modified example. FIG. 13 is a schematic plan view of a component mounting device according to yet another modified example. FIG. 13 is a bottom perspective view showing a mounting head according to still another modified example. FIG. 13 is a schematic vertical sectional view showing a relay stage according to still another modified example.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device that mounts components on a mounting point of a board brought into a working area, the component mounting device comprising: a mounting nozzle that holds a component and mounts it on the board; a motor that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle; a mounting nozzle height detection unit that detects the height of the mounting nozzle; and a control unit. The control unit comprises: a mounting point height measurement unit that measures the height of the mounting point based on the height of the mounting nozzle detected by the mounting nozzle detection unit when the mounting nozzle holding the component mounts the component on the mounting point and the thickness of the component; a mounting point height estimation unit that calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which a component is not mounted based on the heights of the multiple mounting points measured by the mounting point height measurement unit; a target position calculation unit that calculates a target height when the mounting nozzle holding the component is lowered toward the mounting point based on the estimated height of the mounting point and the thickness of the component to be mounted on the mounting point; and a motor control unit that controls the motor based on the target height.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device according to the first aspect, further comprising a stage having a reference surface, the control unit further comprising a reference height setting unit that sets a reference height based on a height detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle is brought into contact with the reference surface, and a component thickness measurement unit that measures the thickness of the component based on the reference height and the height detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the component is sandwiched between the reference surface and the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle, and the mounting point height measurement unit measures the height of the mounting point using the thickness of the component measured by the component thickness measurement unit.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device according to the second aspect, in which the component thickness measuring unit calculates the thickness of the component based on the height detected by the mounting nozzle height detecting unit when the component placed on the reference surface is picked up by the mounting nozzle.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device according to the third aspect, in which the component thickness measuring unit measures the thickness of the component based on the value indicating the lowest point among the values detected by the mounting nozzle height detecting unit during a predetermined period immediately before the mounting nozzle that picked up the component leaves the reference surface.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device according to the third or fourth aspect, further comprising a camera that captures an image of a component placed on the reference surface, the control unit further comprising a component recognition unit that recognizes the component using the image captured by the camera, and the control unit controls the mounting nozzle to align the center of the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle with the center of the component recognized by the component recognition unit and pick up the component.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, in which some of the mounting points are set as a plurality of designated mounting points for the mounting point height estimator to calculate the estimated height, and the mounting point height estimator calculates the estimated height of the mounting point where no component is mounted based on the heights obtained from the plurality of designated mounting points.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the motor control unit has a contact detection unit that detects that a component or the mounting nozzle has come into contact with a mounting point, and the control unit controls the mounting nozzle to lower until the contact detection unit detects contact when a component is to be mounted on a mounting point that is set as the designated mounting point, and controls the mounting nozzle to lower until the target height calculated by the target position calculation unit is reached when a component is to be mounted on a mounting point other than the designated mounting point. The component mounting device of the sixth aspect is provided.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device according to the sixth or seventh aspect, in which the substrate includes a plurality of divided substrates, and a plurality of designated mounting points are set for each of the divided substrates.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device according to any one of the sixth to eighth aspects, in which the designated mounting points are set to nine or more mounting points.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting device according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, in which the mounting point height estimation unit calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which no component is mounted using the new mounting point height obtained by the mounting point height measurement unit, and updates the already calculated estimated height of the mounting point.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting method for mounting a component on a mounting point of a board brought into a work area, the component mounting method comprising the steps of: controlling a mounting nozzle holding a component by a control unit to mount the component on the mounting point of the board; using a mounting nozzle height detection unit that detects the height of the mounting nozzle, the control unit measures the height of the mounting point based on the height of the mounting nozzle detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the mounting nozzle mounts the component on the mounting point and the thickness of the component; calculating an estimated height of a mounting point on which a component is not mounted based on the measured heights of the multiple mounting points; calculating a target height for lowering the mounting nozzle holding a component toward the mounting point based on the estimated height of the mounting point and the thickness of the component to be mounted on the mounting point; and controlling a motor that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle based on the target height to lower the mounting nozzle toward the mounting point.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, a component mounting method according to the eleventh aspect is provided, in which a stage having a reference surface is provided, and further, the control unit sets a reference height based on the height detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle is brought into contact with the reference surface, the control unit measures the thickness of the component based on the height detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the component is sandwiched between the reference surface and the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle and the reference height, and measures the height of the mounting point based on the measured component thickness.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting method according to the twelfth aspect, in which the thickness of the component is calculated based on the height detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the component placed on the reference surface is picked up by the mounting nozzle.

According to a 14th aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting method according to the 13th aspect, in which the thickness of the component is measured based on the value indicating the lowest point among the values detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit during a predetermined period immediately before the mounting nozzle that picked up the component leaves the reference surface.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting method according to the thirteenth or fourteenth aspect, further comprising providing a camera for capturing an image of a component placed on the reference surface, and further comprising the control unit recognizing the component using the image captured by the camera, and the control unit controlling the mounting nozzle to align the center of the mounting nozzle to the center of the recognized component and pick up the component.

According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting method according to any one of the eleventh to fifteenth aspects, in which some of the mounting points are set as a plurality of designated mounting points for calculating the estimated height, and an estimated height of the mounting point where no component is mounted is calculated based on the heights obtained from the plurality of designated mounting points.

According to a 17th aspect of the present invention, the component mounting method according to the 16th aspect is provided, in which the control unit has a contact detection unit that detects when a component comes into contact with a mounting point, and when a component is to be mounted on a mounting point that is set as the designated mounting point, the control unit controls the mounting nozzle to lower until the contact detection unit detects contact, and when a component is to be mounted on a mounting point other than the designated mounting point, the control unit controls the mounting nozzle to lower until the target height is reached.

According to an 18th aspect of the present invention, a component mounting method according to the 16th or 17th aspect is provided, in which a substrate is provided with a plurality of divided substrates, and a plurality of designated mounting points are set for each of the divided substrates.

According to a 19th aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting method according to any one of the 16th to 18th aspects, in which the designated mounting points are set to 9 or more mounting points.

According to a 20th aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting method according to any one of the 11th to 19th aspects, further comprising the control unit calculating an estimated height of a mounting point on which no component is mounted based on the height of the newly measured mounting point, and updating the already calculated estimated height of the mounting point.

Below, exemplary embodiments of the component mounting device and the component mounting method using the same according to the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings. The present invention is not limited to the specific configurations of the following embodiments, and configurations based on similar technical ideas are included in the present invention.

(Embodiment 1)
First, the configuration of the component mounting device 1 will be described with reference to Fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a schematic plan view of the component mounting device 1 according to the first embodiment.

The component mounting device 1 of the first embodiment is a device for mounting and mounting components such as electronic components on a substrate 2 positioned in a work area A.

The component mounting device 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a board transport unit 4, a first component supply unit 6, a second component supply unit 8, a third component supply unit 10, a removal head 12, a mounting head 14, a head camera 16, an XY table 17 (X-axis beams 18, 20 and Y-axis tables 22, 24), a relay stage 26, a relay stage camera 28, a first component disposal box 30, a component camera 32, a second component disposal box 34, and a control unit 35.

The board transport unit 4 is a unit for holding and transporting the board 2 and positioning it in the work area A. The board transport unit 4 has a transport conveyor 5 that transports the board 2 in the X direction, and FIG. 1 mainly illustrates the transport conveyor 5. The work area A is an area for performing the work of mounting components on the board 2, and is set on the transport conveyor 5.

The component supply units 6, 8, and 10 are units for supplying components such as electronic components. In the first embodiment, the component supply units 6, 8, and 10 are each configured as a tape feeder and have the function of transporting a carrier tape containing components to a predetermined component removal position.

As shown in FIG. 1, the first component supply unit 6 is located on one side (FRONT) of the work area A, and the second component supply unit 8 and the third component supply unit 10 are located on the other side (REAR).

The component supply units 6, 8, and 10 of the first embodiment each supply components of different sizes. Specifically, the first component supply unit 6 supplies micro components, the second component supply unit 8 supplies small components, and the third component supply unit 10 supplies medium-sized components. The size of the micro components is, for example, 0.4 mm x 0.2 mm or less in length and width in a plan view, and the size of the small components is, for example, 0.6 mm x 0.3 mm to 1.0 mm x 0.5 mm. The size of the medium-sized components is, for example, 1.6 mm x 0.8 mm or more in length and width, and is contained in a carrier tape of 8 mm to 32 mm width and supplied from a tape feeder.

The removal head 12 is a component transfer section (first component transfer section) for removing micro-components supplied by the first component supply unit 6 and transferring them to the relay stage 26. The removal head 12 is provided in correspondence with the first component supply unit 6, and does not correspond to the second component supply unit 8 or the third component supply unit 10. In other words, the removal head 12 is controlled so as not to remove components supplied by the second component supply unit 8 or the third component supply unit 10.

The mounting head 14 is a component transfer section (second component transfer section) for picking up components and transferring and mounting them on the board 2. The mounting head 14 is provided corresponding to each of the component supply units 6, 8, and 10, and has the function of picking up tiny components placed on the relay stage 26 and mounting them on the board 2, and the function of picking up small or medium-sized components directly from the component supply units 8 and 10 and mounting them on the board 2.

The head camera 16 is a camera provided on the mounting head 14. The head camera 16 is attached to the mounting head 14 with the imaging direction facing downward, and moves integrally with the mounting head 14 as it moves. The head camera 16 is controlled to capture an image of the board 2 and the like placed in the work area A.

The XY table 17 is a member that supports the extraction head 12 and the mounting head 14 so that they can move in the X and Y directions. The XY table 17 includes a first X-axis beam 18, a second X-axis beam 20, and Y-axis beams 22 and 24.

The first X-axis beam 18 is provided between the Y-axis beams 22, 24 and extends along the X direction, and supports the take-out head 12 so that it can move in the X direction. Similarly, the second X-axis beam 20 is provided between the Y-axis beams 22, 24 and extends along the X direction, and supports the mounting head 14 so that it can move in the X direction. The Y-axis beams 22, 24 each support the first X-axis beam 18 and the second X-axis beam 20 so that they can move in the Y direction.

The relay stage 26 is a stage for temporarily placing the micro-components supplied from the first component supply unit 6. A relay stage camera 28 is provided on the relay stage 26.

The relay stage camera 28 is a camera for capturing images of micro-components placed on the relay stage 26. Based on the images captured by the relay stage camera 28, the position and orientation of the micro-component can be recognized, and the nozzle and component can be aligned when the mounting head 14 picks up the component. By performing alignment, even if the component is a micro-component, it can be picked up and held with high precision, improving the mounting precision on the board 2. Furthermore, it is also suitable for "narrow-adjacent mounting," in which components are mounted on the board 2 with a narrow gap between them (see Figures 34A and 34B).

The first part disposal box 30 is a box for disposing of parts that is provided adjacent to the relay stage 26. Some of the micro parts placed on the relay stage 26 are selectively disposed of in the first part disposal box 30.

The component camera 32 is a camera for capturing images of the components held by the mounting head 14. The component camera 32 is fixed with the imaging direction facing upward.

The second part disposal box 34 is a box for disposing of parts similar to the first part disposal box 30. Some of the small or medium-sized parts held by the mounting head 14 are selectively disposed of in the second part disposal box 34.

The configurations and functions of the take-out head 12 and the mounting head 14 will be explained using Figures 2 to 8. Figure 2 is a bottom perspective view of the take-out head 12, and Figure 3 is a bottom perspective view of the mounting head 14.

As shown in FIG. 2, the extraction head 12 includes a plurality of extraction nozzles 36 and a main body portion 38.

The extraction nozzles 36 are holding nozzles for transferring the micro-components described above. The extraction nozzles 36 are arranged at regular intervals in the X and Y directions. The pitch of the extraction nozzles 36 is set to be equal, with a pitch X1 in the X direction and a pitch Y1 in the Y direction. In the first embodiment, a total of 16 extraction nozzles 36 are provided, four in the X direction and four in the Y direction.

The main body 38 is a member that supports the multiple extraction nozzles 36. The main body 38 supports the multiple extraction nozzles 36 and has an internal drive mechanism for driving the multiple extraction nozzles 36. The drive mechanism performs the lifting and lowering operation of the extraction nozzles 36 and the suction operation of the extraction nozzles 36 to pick up parts. Details will be described later.

As shown in FIG. 3, the mounting head 14 includes a head camera 16, a plurality of mounting nozzles 40, a plurality of shafts 42, and a main body 44.

The mounting nozzles 40 are holding nozzles for transferring the micro, small or medium-sized components described above. The mounting nozzles 40 are arranged at regular intervals in the X and Y directions. The pitch of the mounting nozzles 40 is set to be equal, with a pitch of X2 in the X direction and a pitch of Y2 in the Y direction. In the first embodiment, a total of eight mounting nozzles 40 are provided, four in the X direction and two in the Y direction. In other words, the number of extraction nozzles 36 is doubled compared to the number of mounting nozzles 40.

In the first embodiment, the X-direction pitch X1 of the extraction nozzles 36 and the X-direction pitch X2 of the mounting nozzles 40 are set to be the same, and the Y-direction pitch Y1 of the extraction nozzles 36 is set to be 1/2 the Y-direction pitch Y2 of the mounting nozzles 40. The relationship between the Y-direction pitches Y1 and Y2 is not limited to being set to 1/2, and may be set to 1/n (n is an integer equal to or greater than 1).

The shaft 42 is a member for attaching the mounted nozzle 40 in an exchangeable manner. As shown in FIG. 3, one mounted nozzle 40 is attached to one shaft 42.

The main body 44 is a member that supports the head camera 16 and the multiple shafts 42. A drive mechanism for driving the multiple shafts 42 is provided inside the main body 44. The drive mechanism performs the integral lifting and lowering of the shafts 42 and the mounting nozzles 40 attached to the shafts 42, and the suction operation of the mounting nozzles 40 to pick up parts. Details will be described later.

Figures 4 and 5 are schematic diagrams showing the tip of the extraction nozzle 36.

In FIG. 4, (a) shows an enlarged cross-sectional view of the tip of the extraction nozzle 36, and (b) shows a bottom view of the tip of the extraction nozzle 36.

As shown in FIG. 4, a porous member 46 having air permeability is disposed at the tip of the take-out nozzle 36. The porous member 46 is fitted into a recess provided at the tip of the take-out nozzle 36 and is disposed so as to face an internal suction hole 48. The suction hole 48 is connected to a suction source (not shown) and generates a negative pressure for adsorbing the parts. The porous member 46 adsorbs the parts to its bottom surface 46A by the negative pressure generated by the suction hole 48. The bottom surface 46A of the porous member 46 corresponds to the lower end surface of the take-out nozzle 36. The material of the porous member 46 may be any material as long as it transmits the negative pressure generated by the suction hole 48 to the bottom surface 46A.

In FIG. 5, (a) shows the state immediately before the part P is picked up by the pick-up nozzle 36, and (b) shows the state immediately after the part P is picked up.

As shown in FIG. 5(a), a pocket 52 of a carrier tape 50 of the first component supply unit 6 contains a component P as a microcomponent. With negative pressure generated through the porous member 46 of the removal nozzle 36, the tip of the removal nozzle 36 is brought close to the component P to adsorb the component P. As shown in FIG. 5(b), the removal nozzle 36 is raised to remove the component P from the pocket 52 of the carrier tape 50.

Figures 6 and 7 are bottom perspective views showing the tip of the mounting nozzle 40.

As shown in FIG. 6, the mounting nozzle 40 has a suction hole 54 formed in its lower end surface. The suction hole 54 is connected to a suction source (not shown) and generates a negative pressure for suctioning the component P. The shape of the suction hole 54 is not limited to the shape shown in FIG. 6 and may be any shape. As shown in FIG. 7, the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is brought close to the component P (a micro component, a small component, or a medium-sized component) to suction the component P.

Next, the drive mechanism of the mounting nozzle 40 and the extraction nozzle 36 will be explained using Figures 8A, 8B, and 9.

Figures 8A and 8B are vertical and horizontal cross-sectional views, respectively, showing the internal structure of the main body 44 of the mounting head 14.

As shown in Figures 8A and 8B, the drive mechanism for the mounting nozzle 40 includes multiple servo motors 56, multiple pulleys 57, a toothed belt 58, a θ-axis motor 59, and a pulley 60.

The servo motor 56 is a motor that moves the shaft 42 and the mounted nozzle 40 up and down in the Z direction. One servo motor 56 is provided for each combination of the shaft 42 and the mounted nozzle 40, and a total of eight servo motors 56 are provided in the example shown in Figures 8A and 8B. Each servo motor 56 includes a linear motor 61 and an encoder 62.

The linear motor 61 is a motor unit that raises and lowers the shaft 42 that is inserted vertically. The encoder 62 is a component that outputs encoder pulses (position signals) that indicate the distance and direction of movement of the shaft 42 as the shaft 42 moves. The encoder pulses output by the encoder 62 are used as height information for the mounted nozzle 40.

Pulley 57 is a pulley arranged to surround shaft 42. Pulley 57 and shaft 42 are connected to each other so that rotational force in rotation direction R1 is transmitted, but the vertical movement of shaft 42 is not transmitted to pulley 57. In embodiment 1, a total of eight pulleys 57 are provided, similar to servo motor 56, and each of the pulleys 57 is engaged with toothed belt 58.

The toothed belt 58 is a belt for rotating the multiple pulleys 57 in synchronization. The toothed belt 58 is connected to the θ-axis motor 59 via a pulley 60.

The θ-axis motor 59 is a motor for rotating the toothed belt 58. The θ-axis motor 59 has an output shaft 59A, which engages with a pulley 60. The rotational force of the θ-axis motor 59 is transmitted to the pulley 60 and the toothed belt 58 via the output shaft 59A.

According to the drive mechanism for the mounting nozzles 40 described above, the multiple mounting nozzles 40 can be rotated together in the rotation direction R1 by driving the θ-axis motor 59, and the mounting nozzles 40 can be individually raised and lowered in the vertical direction D1 by driving each of the servo motors 56.

The above operation of the mounting nozzle 40 is the same for the take-out nozzle 36 of the take-out head 12. The drive mechanism of the take-out nozzle 36 will be described with reference to FIG. 9. FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the internal structure of the main body 38 of the take-out head 12.

As shown in FIG. 9, the drive mechanism of the extraction nozzle 36 includes a plurality of servo motors 63, a plurality of pulleys 64, a toothed belt 65, a θ-axis motor 66 having an output shaft 66A, and a pulley 67. Each servo motor 63 includes a linear motor 68 and an encoder 69. The functions and connections of these components are similar to those of the drive mechanism of the mounting nozzle 40 described in FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B, so a description thereof will be omitted.

According to the drive mechanism for the extraction nozzle 36 shown in FIG. 9, the multiple extraction nozzles 36 can be rotated integrally in the rotation direction R2 by driving the θ-axis motor 66, and each extraction nozzle 36 can be raised and lowered individually in the vertical direction D2 by driving each servo motor 63.

Next, the configuration of the relay stage 26 will be explained using Figures 10 to 16.

Figure 10 is a schematic perspective view of the relay stage 26, Figure 11 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view of the relay stage 26, and Figure 12 is a schematic plan view of the relay stage 26.

As shown in Figures 10 to 12, the relay stage 26 includes a relay stage camera 28, a first part disposal box 30, a temporary placement section 70, a housing 74, a part removal brush 76, and a brush drive mechanism 78.

The temporary placement section 70 is a member for temporarily placing a component P as a microcomponent. The upper surface of the temporary placement section 70 is a placement surface 71 for placing the component P. The placement surface 71 has a size large enough to place multiple components P, and in the first embodiment, has a size large enough to accommodate all of the components P when the aforementioned take-out head 12 or mounting head 14 transfers multiple components P together. Figures 10 and 11 show an example of a state in which a total of 16 components P are placed on the placement surface 71.

As shown in FIG. 11, the height position of the mounting surface 71 is set to a reference height (first reference height H1) for the intermediate stage 26. The temporary placement section 70 is used as a reference member (first reference member) for setting the first reference height H1.

The temporary placement section 70 of the first embodiment is made of a transparent plate-like member. The temporary placement section 70 can be seen through in the thickness direction by the relay stage camera 28 provided below the temporary placement section 70.

The relay stage camera 28 captures images of the multiple parts P placed on the temporary placement section 70. The relay stage camera 28 is disposed in a space surrounded by the housing 74 below the temporary placement section 70 with the imaging direction facing upward. In the first embodiment, two relay stage cameras 28 are provided.

As shown by the dotted lines in Figures 11 and 12, the relay stage camera 28 has a predetermined imaging range B. The imaging range B is set to a range that can capture an image of multiple (16 in total) parts P placed on the placement surface 71.

The housing 74 is the housing portion of the relay stage 26, and supports components such as the temporary placement unit 70 and the relay stage camera 28. A plurality of lights 80 and a plurality of diffusers 82 are provided inside the housing 74. The lights 80 are components that irradiate light toward the imaging range B of the relay stage camera 28, and the diffusers 82 are components that diffuse the light irradiated by the lights 80.

The part removal brush 76 is a brush for removing parts P remaining on the placement surface 71. As shown in FIG. 10 etc., the part removal brush 76 is composed of multiple brushes that protrude downward. The part removal brush 76 is configured to be able to move linearly in the X direction, and pushes parts P left behind on the placement surface 71 towards the first part removal box 30 to discard the parts P. The parts P discarded in the first part removal box 30 become discarded parts Pz (FIGS. 11 and 12).

The brush drive mechanism 78 is a mechanism for driving the part removal brush 76. The brush drive mechanism 78 includes a motor 84 and a belt cover 86.

The detailed configuration of the brush drive mechanism 78 will be described with reference to Figures 13 and 14. Figures 13 and 14 are schematic cross-sectional views showing the peripheral configuration of the brush drive mechanism 78.

As shown in Figures 13 and 14, the brush drive mechanism 78 includes a motor 84 and a belt cover 86, as well as a belt 88, a connecting portion 90, a slider 92, and a guide 94.

The motor 84 drives and rotates the belt 88. The motor 84 and the belt 88 are housed inside the belt cover 86. A connecting portion 90 is attached to the belt 88, and the belt 88 is connected to a slider 92 by the connecting portion 90. The slider 92 is a member that moves linearly in the X direction along a guide 94, and is integrally attached with the component removal brush 76 described above. The guide 94 is attached in a horizontal position to the side of the housing 74, and extends along the X direction.

According to the brush drive mechanism 78 described above, the belt 88 is rotated by driving the motor 84 to move the part removal brush 76 in the X direction, so that the part P placed on the placement surface 71 can be pushed into the first part disposal box 30 and removed from the temporary placement section 70.

Next, the configuration and function of the substrate transport unit 4 will be described with reference to Figures 15 and 16. Figure 15 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view of the substrate transport unit 4 before the substrate 2 is raised, and Figure 16 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view of the substrate transport unit 4 after the substrate 2 is raised.

As shown in FIG. 15, the board transport unit 4 includes a pair of transport conveyors 5 and a backup pin 98. Each transport conveyor 5 further includes a board pressing member 95, a board guide 96, and a transport belt 97.

The substrate holding members 95 are plate-shaped members for holding the substrate 2 from above, and are provided in pairs above the conveyor belt 97. The substrate guides 96 are members that support the conveyor belt 97 and the substrate holding members 95. The backup pins 98 are rod-shaped members that are configured to be able to move up and down below the working area A, and multiple backup pins 98 are provided so that they can come into contact with the underside of the substrate 2.

When the multiple backup pins 98 are raised together from the state shown in FIG. 15, the substrate 2 supported by the transport belt 97 is lifted by the backup pins 98 as shown in FIG. 16. The lifted substrate 2 comes into contact with the lower surface 95B of the substrate holding member 95 and is held down from above by the substrate holding member 95. This positions the substrate 2 in the working area A. The backup pins 98 and the transport conveyor 5 form a substrate holding section 99 that holds the substrate 2.

At least one first measurement point 95M (see FIG. 1) is set on the upper surface 95A of each substrate holding member 95 for setting a reference height (second reference height H2) for the work area A. In the first embodiment, two first measurement points 95M are provided on each substrate holding member 95, for a total of four. The substrate holding member 95 is used as a reference member (second reference member) for setting the second reference height H2.

The upper surface of the substrate 2 is pressed against the lower surface of the substrate holding member 95 and supported from below by backup pins 98, so that the substrate 2 is held horizontally in the work area A. Therefore, the reference height (second reference height H2) for the work area A is set to match the height position of the lower surface 95B (Figure 15) of the substrate holding member 95. Therefore, the reference height (second reference height H2) can be set from the height position of the first measurement point 95M and the known dimension (thickness) of the substrate holding member 95.

Returning to FIG. 1, the control unit 35 is a component that controls the entire component mounting device 1. The control unit 35 includes, for example, a microcomputer. The detailed configuration of the control unit 35 will be described with reference to FIG. 17.

Figure 17 is a block diagram of the control system of the component mounting device 1. As shown in Figure 17, the control unit 35 has a head unit control unit 100 and a main body control unit 102.

The head unit control unit 100 has a function of controlling the lifting and suctioning operations of the extraction nozzle 36 of the extraction head 12, and the lifting and suctioning operations of the mounting nozzle 40 of the mounting head 14. On the other hand, the main body control unit 102 has a function of controlling the transportation of the substrate 2 in the component mounting device 1, the imaging operation by the camera, etc., and also has a function of sending control commands to the head unit control unit 100. The head unit control unit 100 and the main body control unit 102 are electrically connected via a wiring connector (not shown) or the like.

The head unit control unit 100 has a take-out head control unit 104 for controlling the take-out head 12 and a mounting head control unit 106 for controlling the mounting head 14.

The internal configuration of the head unit control unit 100, which includes the extraction head control unit 104 and the mounting head control unit 106, is shown in Figure 18.

As shown in FIG. 18, the mounting head control unit 106 is provided with a motor control unit 112 (#1 to #8) for each of the multiple (eight in this example) mounting nozzles 40 arranged on the mounting head 14, which controls the servo motors 56 (#1 to #8) of the mounting nozzles 40. The mounting head control unit 106 further includes a θ-axis motor control unit 114 that controls the θ-axis motor 59 arranged on the mounting head 14.

Each motor control unit 112 includes a motor driver 116, a contact detection unit 118, a height detection unit 120 (mounted nozzle height detection unit), a lowest point memory unit 122, and an operation command unit 124.

The motor driver 116 supplies power to the servo motor 56 to drive it in accordance with the operation command from the operation command unit 124. Specifically, the motor driver 116 drives the servo motor 56 by servo control that feeds back the deviation between the target values of position, speed, etc. based on the position command and speed command from the operation command unit 124 and the current values of position, speed, etc. detected by the pulse signal sent from the encoder 62.

The contact detection unit 118 detects that the mounting nozzle 40 has come into contact with an object such as the relay stage 26 or a component, or that the component P held by the mounting nozzle 40 has landed (comes into contact) with a mounting point on the board 26. This detection is performed based on the torque (current) output by the motor driver 116 or the encoder pulse from the encoder 62. When torque is used, if the mounting nozzle 40 comes into contact with an object and cannot descend, causing an increase in deviation from the target value, the torque (current) supplied from the motor driver 116 to the servo motor 56 increases. When torque is used, contact is detected by detecting this increase in torque (current). When detecting contact based on the encoder pulse, contact is detected when the period of the encoder pulse becomes longer or is no longer detected, or when an encoder pulse indicating a rise from a descent is received.

The height detection unit 120 counts the encoder pulses from the encoder 62 of the servo motor 56. This count value becomes height information indicating the height position of the mounting nozzle 40. In other words, the height detection unit 120 has a height detection function that detects the height of the mounting nozzle 40 based on the position signal from the servo motor 56 (take-out nozzle height detection unit). The mounting point height measurement described below is performed using the height detection function of the height detection unit 120.

The lowest point memory unit 122 temporarily stores the minimum value of the value output by the height detection unit 120 during a predetermined period when the contact detection unit 118 detects the contact of the mounted nozzle 40, that is, the value indicating the height (lowest point) to which the mounted nozzle 40 has descended the most during the predetermined period. In this embodiment, the value output by the height detection unit 120 decreases as the position of the mounted nozzle 40 becomes lower, so the lowest point memory unit 122 stores the "minimum value" as the value indicating the lowest point. However, if the value output by the height detection unit 120 increases as the position of the mounted nozzle 40 becomes lower, the lowest point memory unit 122 may store the "maximum value". The value stored in the lowest point memory unit 122 is used as height information for the mounted nozzle 40.

The operation command unit 124 issues operation commands to raise and lower the mounted nozzle 40. Specifically, the operation command unit 124 transmits signals to the motor driver 116 as position commands and speed commands based on a preset operation pattern.

Each of the motor control units 112 and the θ-axis motor control unit 114 is realized, for example, by a processing circuit executing a computer program, or by a processing circuit alone, or by a memory alone. The same applies to the other control units.

Similarly, the take-out head control unit 104 is provided with a motor control unit 108 (#1 to #16) that controls the servo motor 63 (#1 to #16) of each of the multiple (16 in this example) take-out nozzles 36 arranged on the take-out head 12. The take-out head control unit 104 is further provided with a θ-axis motor control unit 110 that controls the θ-axis motor 66 arranged on the take-out head 12.

Each motor control unit 108 includes a motor driver 160 and an operation command unit 168. The motor driver 160 and the operation command unit 168 each have the same functions as the motor driver 116 and the operation command unit 124 described above, and therefore a description thereof will be omitted.

Returning to FIG. 17, the main body control unit 102 is connected to each component of the component mounting device 1. Specifically, the main body control unit 102 is connected to, for example, the head camera 16, the XY table 17, the board transport unit 4, the component camera 32, the two relay stage cameras 28, the motor 84, the first component supply unit 6, the second component supply unit 8, and the third component supply unit 10.

The main body control unit 102 has an internal processing unit 101 including a mounting operation execution unit 126, a component thickness measurement unit 128, a reference height setting unit 130, a mounting point height measurement unit 132, a mounting point height measurement unit 134, and a target position calculation unit 136.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 controls the XY table 17, the board transport unit 4, the component supply units 6, 8, 10, the take-out head 12, the mounting head 14, the head camera 16, the component camera 32, the relay stage camera 28, etc., based on the mounting program 138, which will be described later. This executes a series of operations for mounting the component P on the board 2. The mounting operation execution unit 126 executes the operation of mounting the component P on the board 2 by repeating the operation of moving the mounting head 14 from the component supply units 6, 8, 10 or the relay stage 26 to the operation area A multiple times (hereinafter, this operation is referred to as a "turn"). In addition, the mounting operation execution unit 126 executes the operation of taking out the micro-components supplied from the component supply unit 6 by the take-out head 12 before the aforementioned turn is started or between turns, and transferring them to the relay stage 26.

The component thickness measurement unit 128 controls the mounting head 14 to measure the thickness of the component P based on the height information of the mounting nozzle 40 output by the height detection unit 120 when picking up the component P placed on the relay stage 26. To measure the thickness of the component P, a first reference height H1 related to the reference surface of the relay stage 26 is used.

The reference height setting unit 130 controls the mounting head 14 to set a first reference height H1 for the relay stage 26 based on the height information of the mounting nozzle 40 output by the height detection unit 120 when the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is brought into contact with the mounting surface 71, which is the reference surface of the relay stage 26. The reference height setting unit 130 further controls the mounting head 14 to set a second reference height H2 for the work area A based on the height information of the mounting nozzle 40 output by the height detection unit 120 when the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is brought into contact with the upper surface 95A of the substrate holding member 95 in the work area A.

The mounting point height measurement unit 132 controls the mounting head 14 to measure the height of the mounting point based on the height information of the mounting nozzle 40 output by the height detection unit 120 when the component P is mounted on the mounting point of the board 2. To measure the height of the mounting point, the second reference height H2 of the work area A and the thickness information of the component are used.

The mounting point height estimation unit 134 calculates the estimated heights of other mounting points whose heights have not been measured, based on the height data of multiple mounting points from the mounting point height measurement unit 132. The other mounting point estimation unit 134 of the first embodiment uses "surface correction" for the mounting point height estimation process.

The target position calculation unit 136 calculates the target position to which the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P is moved when mounting the component P on the substrate 2. A specific calculation method will be described later with reference to FIG. 20 etc.

The main body control unit 102 further has, as an internal memory unit, a mounting program 138, a target position 140, component data 142, board data 144, reference height data 146, mounting point data 148, component thickness (measured value) 150, and mounting point height (measured value) 152.

The mounting program 138 is a program that determines the mounting order and mounting positions of the components P. An example of the mounting program 138 is shown in FIG. 19.

The mounting program 138 shown in FIG. 19 stores multiple types of information, including "Mount No.", "Turn No.", "Component Type", "Mounting Point", "X", "Y", "θ", "Z", "Removal Nozzle", "Mounting Nozzle", "Relay", and "Designated Mounting Point".

"Mounting No." is identification information indicating the mounting order of the component P. "Turn No." is identification information indicating which turn the component P will be mounted on the board 2. "Component" is identification information indicating the component P to be mounted. "Mounting point" is identification information indicating the mounting point where the component P to be mounted should be mounted. "X" and "Y" are numerical information indicating the X and Y coordinates of the mounting point where the target component P is mounted, respectively. "θ" is numerical information indicating the orientation of the component P to be mounted on the board 2. "Z" is numerical information indicating the height of the mounting point of the board 2 held by the board holding unit 99 in an ideal state, as a difference in height from the second reference height H2. "Extraction nozzle" is identification information indicating which extraction nozzle 36 will hold the component P to be mounted. "Mounting nozzle" is identification information indicating which mounting nozzle 40 will hold the component P to be mounted. "Relay" is identification information indicating whether the component P to be mounted passes through the relay stage 26. In the example of FIG. 19, when the "relay" identification information is "1", it indicates that the relay stage 26 will be used, and when it is "0", it indicates that the relay stage 26 will not be used. "Designated mounting point" is identification information that indicates which of multiple mounting points is designated as the "designated mounting point" for performing the height estimation process for the other mounting points. In the example of FIG. 19, when the "designated mounting point" identification information is "1", it indicates that the mounting point is designated as the designated mounting point, and when it is "0", it indicates that the mounting point is not designated as the designated mounting point.

Returning to FIG. 17, the target position 140 is information indicating the target position to which the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P is moved when mounting the component P on the board 2. The target position 140 is calculated by the target position calculation unit 136.

Part data 142 is data related to part P. Part data 142 includes, for example, information such as dimensions, shape, and type related to part P (e.g., catalog data).

The board data 144 is data related to the board 2. The board data 144 includes information such as the relative positional relationship between a reference mark (see reference mark 174 in FIG. 32) for identifying the position of the board 2 and each mounting point.

The reference height data 146 is data including a first reference height H1 and a second reference height H2 set by the reference height setting unit 130.

Mounting point data 148 is data related to the mounting point of the board 2 that has been brought in. For example, mounting point data 148 includes the X-coordinate, Y-coordinate, and Z-coordinate of the mounting point, and the orientation θ of the component P to be mounted at that mounting point. Mounting point data 148 is a mounting point height memory unit that stores the height of the mounting point.

Component thickness (measurement value) 150 stores the thickness of component P measured by component thickness measurement unit 128.

Mounting point height (measured value) 152 stores the height of the mounting point measured by the mounting point height measurement unit 132.

The main body control unit 102 further includes a first recognition unit 154, a second recognition unit 156, and a third recognition unit 158.

The first recognition unit 154 is a board recognition unit that recognizes the board 2 using the image captured by the head camera 16. The second recognition unit 156 is a component recognition unit that recognizes the component P placed on the relay stage 26 using the image captured by the relay stage camera 28. The third component recognition unit 158 is a component recognition unit that recognizes the component P held by the mounting head 14 using the image captured by the component camera 32.

The operation of the component mounting device 1 of the first embodiment having the above-mentioned configuration will be described with reference to Figures 20 to 34B. Prior to the component mounting operation on the substrate 2, the component mounting device 1 of the first embodiment executes a reference height setting process (reference heights H1, H2 setting process) that measures and stores the reference heights of the relay stage 26 and the substrate holder 99.

First, the process for setting the reference heights H1 and H2 will be explained using Figures 20 to 24B.

Figure 20 is a flowchart showing the process of setting the first reference height H1. Each process in the flow shown in Figure 20 is executed by the control unit 35, which includes the reference height setting unit 130.

First, the control unit 35 moves the mounting nozzles 40 to the relay stage 26 (S1). Specifically, the reference height setting unit 130 of the main body control unit 102 controls the XY table 7 supporting the mounting head 14 to move the mounting head 14, which has multiple mounting nozzles 40 and is not holding any components P, above the relay stage 26. Note that this flow is executed with no components P placed on the placement surface 71 of the relay stage 26.

The control unit 35 starts lowering the mounting nozzle 40 (S2). Specifically, in response to a command from the operation command unit 124 of the mounting head control unit 106, the motor driver 116 controls the servo motor 56 corresponding to one of the multiple mounting nozzles 40 to lower the mounting nozzle 40 toward the mounting surface 71.

The control unit 35 waits for the contact detection unit 118 to detect that the mounting nozzle 40 has come into contact with the mounting surface 71 (S3).

Figure 21 shows the state in which the bottom end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is in contact with the mounting surface 71. As shown in Figure 21, when it is detected that the bottom end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is in contact with the mounting surface 71 (YES in S3), the process proceeds to step S4.

The control unit 35 controls the servo motor 56 to stop the descent of the mounting nozzle 40 (S4), and the reference height setting unit 130 sets the first reference height H1 (S5). The reference height setting unit 130 acquires height information of the mounting nozzle 40 that has contacted the mounting surface 71 from the height detection unit 120 or the lowest point memory unit 122. The reference height setting unit 130 then stores the acquired height information in the memory unit 103 as the reference height H1, i.e., the reference height data 146. This completes the setting of the reference height H1 for this mounting nozzle 40. Note that, when the lower end surface of the same mounting nozzle 40 is brought into contact with the same location on the mounting surface 71 multiple times, the reference height setting unit 130 sets the average value of the acquired multiple pieces of height information as the reference height H1. Also, when the lower end surface of the same mounting nozzle 40 is brought into contact with multiple locations on the mounting surface 71, the reference height setting unit 130 sets the function of the surface obtained from the acquired multiple pieces of height information as the reference height H1.

The control unit 35 controls the servo motor 56 to raise the mounting nozzle 40 as shown in FIG. 22 (S6). The raised mounting nozzle 40 is returned to the same height position as the other mounting nozzles 40.

The control unit 35 determines whether or not the process has been completed for all mounting nozzles 40 (S7). In step S7, the control unit 35 determines whether or not the process of steps S1 to S6 has been performed for all of the multiple mounting nozzles 40 (#1 to #8) provided on the mounting head 14. If there are any mounting nozzles 40 for which the process of steps S1 to S6 has not been performed, it determines that the process has not been completed for all mounting nozzles 40 (NO in S7), and performs the process of steps S1 to S6 for the other mounting nozzles 40. In other words, the process of steps S1 to S6 is performed for each of the multiple mounting nozzles 40, and the first reference height H1 is set for each mounting nozzle 40. This allows the first reference height H1 to be set without being affected by individual differences between the multiple mounting nozzles 40.

In the first embodiment, each mounted nozzle 40 is attached to the shaft 42 in an interchangeable manner, and the first reference height H1 can be set for each combination of mounted nozzle 40 and shaft 42. This allows the first reference height H1 to be set with greater precision.

When steps S1 to S6 have been completed for all mounted nozzles 40, it is determined that the process has been completed for all mounted nozzles 40 (YES in step S7), and the process of setting the first reference height H1 is terminated.

Figure 23 is a flowchart showing the process of setting the second reference height H2, and Figures 24A and 24B are schematic diagrams for explaining the flow of the process according to the flowchart of Figure 23. Each process according to the flowchart of Figure 23 is executed by the control unit 35, which includes the reference height setting unit 130. Descriptions of content that overlaps with the first reference height setting process described above will be omitted as appropriate.

First, the control unit 35 moves the mounting nozzles 40 to the work area A (S8). Specifically, the reference height setting unit 130 of the main body control unit 102 controls the XY table 7 supporting the mounting head 14 to move the mounting head 14, which has multiple mounting nozzles 40 not holding components P, above the board transport unit 4 in the work area A. This flow is executed in a state where no board 2 is placed in the work area A.

The control unit 35 starts lowering the mounting nozzle 40 (S9). Specifically, in response to a command from the operation command unit 124 of the mounting head control unit 106, the motor driver 116 controls the servo motor 56 corresponding to one of the multiple mounting nozzles 40 to lower the mounting nozzle 40 toward the substrate holding member 95 of the substrate transport unit 4, as shown in FIG. 24A. In the first embodiment, a pair of substrate holding members 95 are provided, and the mounting nozzle 40 is lowered toward one of the substrate holding members 95 (the one on the left side of the drawing).

The control unit 35 waits for the contact detection unit 118 to detect that the mounting nozzle 40 has come into contact with the upper surface 95A (first measurement point 95M) of the substrate holding member 95 (S10).

As shown in FIG. 24A, when it is detected that the mounting nozzle 40 has come into contact with the substrate holding member 95 (YES in S10), the descent of the mounting nozzle 40 is stopped (S11), and the height information of the mounting nozzle 40 obtained by the height detection unit 120 or the height information stored in the lowest point memory unit 122 is acquired and stored (S12). This measures the height of the upper surface 95A (first measurement point 95M).

The control unit 35 raises the mounting nozzle 40 (S13) and determines whether height measurement has been completed at all measurement points (S14). In the first embodiment, since there are four first measurement points 95M, if height measurement has not been completed at all measurement points (NO in S14), steps S8 to S14 are executed again.

As shown in FIG. 24A, once height measurement of the first measurement point 95M of one of the substrate holding members 95 has been completed, the mounting nozzle 40 is lowered toward the top surface of the other substrate holding member 95 (S8 to S9), as shown in FIG. 24B, and measurements are then taken of the remaining first measurement points 95M (S10 to S13).

When the height measurement of all the first measurement points 95M is completed (YES in S14), the second reference height H2 is set (S15). In the first embodiment, the average value of the heights of the four first measurement points 95M is set as the second reference height H2.

The number of measurement points is not limited to four, and one, three, five or more measurement points may be set. In addition, when the inclination of the substrate transport unit 4 in the vertical direction is taken into consideration as the second reference height H2, the second reference height H2 may be a function that defines the inclination.

When the component mounting device 1 has completed the preparatory work, including the process of setting the reference heights H1 and H2, it starts the work of mounting components on the board 2. Next, the work of mounting components on the board 2 will be explained using Figures 25 to 34B. Figure 25 is a block diagram for explaining the method of calculating the target position by the target position calculation unit 136. Figure 26 is a diagram showing the flow of a series of component mounting operations by the component mounting device 1.

(Board delivery)
26, first, the board 2 is carried into the work area A. Specifically, the board 2 is transported by the transport conveyor 5 of the board transport unit 4 and positioned in the work area A.

(Board recognition)
The board 2 positioned in the work area A is recognized. Specifically, the mounting head 14 having the head camera 16 is moved in the XY directions, and the head camera 16 is positioned above the board 2 to capture an image of the board 2. The first recognition unit 154 recognizes the position of the board 2 based on the image captured by the head camera 16. The recognition result of the board 2 by the first recognition unit 154 is transmitted to the target position calculation unit 136.

(Setting implementation data)
25(2), the target position calculation unit 136 reads information on all mounting points scheduled for the component mounting device 1 from the mounting program 138. The information to be read is the information on X, Y, θ, and Z in the mounting program 138 shown in FIG.

25(3), the target position calculation unit 136 calculates the corrected mounting point data 148 (X1, Y1, θ1) by correcting the read X, Y, and θ based on the board recognition result by the first recognition unit 154, and stores the corrected mounting point data 148 in the memory unit 103. If there is an estimated value by the mounting point height estimation unit 134 for the mounting point, the target position calculation unit 136 stores the value as Z1, but if there is no estimated value, stores Z in the mounting program 138 as Z1. At the start of the first turn, there is no estimated value by the mounting point height estimation unit 134 for the mounting point, so Z in the mounting program 138 is set as Z1. Of the mounting point data 148, (X1, Y1, θ1) becomes the tentative target position of each mounting nozzle 40 in the component mounting process.

(Removing parts)
In parallel with the board loading and board recognition described above, as shown in Fig. 26, the take-out head 12 takes out the components P and places them on the relay stage 26. To take out the components P by the take-out head 12, the take-out head 12 moves above the first component supply unit 6 shown in Fig. 1, and the take-out nozzles 36 of the take-out head 12 pick up and take out the components P accommodated in the carrier tape of the first component supply unit 6. The take-out nozzles 36 are raised and lowered individually, and each take-out nozzle 36 sequentially picks up the components P. In the first embodiment, a total of 16 take-out nozzles 36 are provided, and the components P are taken out until a maximum of 16 take-out nozzles 36 pick up the components P.

(Placing parts)
The take-out head 12 is moved to the relay stage 26 with the multiple take-out nozzles 36 holding the components P. This allows the multiple components P to be transported from the first component supply unit 6 to the relay stage 26 in a lump. Thereafter, the components P held by the take-out nozzles 36 are placed on the temporary placement section 70 of the relay stage 26. Specifically, the multiple take-out nozzles 36 are simultaneously lowered to release the suction of the components P close to the placement surface 71 of the temporary placement section 70, and the components P are placed on the placement surface 71. This results in a state in which multiple (e.g., 16) components P are placed on the placement surface 71 as shown in FIG. 10. In the first embodiment, the take-out nozzle 36 transports 16 components P to be mounted on the board 2 in the first and second turns, in other words, multiple components P for multiple turns, to the relay stage 26 in a lump.

Once placement of the part P is complete, the removal head 12 returns to the part supply unit 6.

(Parts Recognition)
Thereafter, component recognition is performed on the components P arranged on the relay stage 26. Specifically, the components P arranged on the temporary placement section 70 are imaged from below using the relay stage camera 28 shown in FIG. 10 and the like. In the first embodiment, two relay stage cameras 28 are provided, and 16 components P arranged on the temporary placement section 70 can be imaged simultaneously. Based on the captured image (first image), the second recognition section 156 of the control section 35 recognizes each component P. The recognition of the components P at this timing is "pre-pickup component recognition" (first component recognition) performed before the mounting head 14 picks up the components P. In the first embodiment, pre-pickup component recognition is performed on all components P arranged on the temporary placement section 70.

This pre-pickup component recognition is used to perform the pickup process of component P by the mounting head 14. During the pre-pickup component recognition, the mounting head 14 moves from the work area A to the relay stage 26 (Figure 26). Furthermore, when the pre-pickup component recognition is completed while the mounting head 14 is moving, the main body control unit 102 starts the component pickup process.

The flow of the component pickup process is shown in Figure 27. Each process in the flowchart shown in Figure 27 is executed by the mounting work execution unit 126 of the control unit 35.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 acquires the result of the pre-pickup component recognition (S16). Specifically, the mounting operation execution unit 126 of the main body control unit 102 reads out data temporarily stored in the second recognition unit 156 as a result of the pre-pickup component recognition. The result of the pre-pickup component recognition includes position information of each of the components P placed on the relay stage 26. In the first embodiment, the mounting operation execution unit 126 acquires from the second recognition unit 156 the position information of one or more (up to eight) components P scheduled to be mounted on the board 2 in the started turn.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 aligns the mounting nozzle 40 with respect to the component P (S17). Specifically, the mounting operation execution unit 126 aligns the mounting nozzle 40 assigned by the mounting program 138 with respect to one of the multiple components P recognized by the pre-pickup component recognition in the XY direction. In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 28A, the alignment is performed so that the center in the XY direction of the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 coincides with the center in the XY direction of the component P.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 starts lowering the mounting nozzle 40 in parallel with aligning the mounting nozzle 40 (S18). Specifically, the mounting operation execution unit 126 sends a command to the motor control unit 112, which controls the servo motor 56 to lower the mounting nozzle 40. This allows the component P to be moved diagonally downward as shown in FIG. 28A, shortening the work time and increasing productivity.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 starts suction by the mounting nozzle 40 at a predetermined timing after starting the descent of the mounting nozzle 40 (S19). Specifically, a valve (not shown) connected through a pipe to the suction hole 54 (see FIG. 6) of the mounting nozzle 40 is driven to connect the suction hole 54 to a negative pressure source, generating negative pressure in the suction hole 54. If the mounting nozzle 40 continues to descend in this state, it will come into contact with the component P placed on the relay stage 26 (FIG. 28B).

The mounting operation execution unit 126 determines whether the mounting nozzle 40 has come into contact (S20). A specific method for this is described with reference to FIG. 28D.

Figure 28D is a graph showing how the output value of the height detection unit 120 changes when the mounting nozzle 40 is lowered in response to a command from the operation command unit 124.

As shown in part A of FIG. 28D, when the bottom end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 comes into contact with the mounting surface 71, a fluctuation occurs in the output value of the height detection unit 120. When a fluctuation that is not proportional to the command of the operation command unit 124 is detected in the output value of the height detection unit 120, the contact detection unit 118 determines that the bottom end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 has come into contact with the mounting surface 71.

When the mounting operation execution unit 126 detects that the bottom end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 has come into contact with the component P (YES in S20), it stores the minimum value of the height of the mounting nozzle 40 (S21). Specifically, it stores in the lowest point storage unit 122 the minimum value of the output value of the height detection unit 120 during a predetermined period after the bottom end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 comes into contact with the component P.

As shown in FIG. 28D, a "buffer period" is defined from when contact of the mounting nozzle 40 is detected until the mounting nozzle 40 starts to rise, and a predetermined range in the latter half of the buffer period is defined as a "minimum value acquisition period." This makes it possible to acquire the minimum value during the period when the output value is stable, without using the output value of the height detection unit 120 during the unstable period immediately after contact is detected.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 raises the mounting nozzle 40 (S22). Specifically, the mounting operation execution unit 126 sends a command to the motor control unit 112, and the motor control unit 112 controls the servo motor 56 to raise the mounting nozzle 40. In the first embodiment, the mounting nozzle 40 is moved diagonally upward as shown in FIG. 28C.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 issues a command to recognize components after picking up (S23). Specifically, the mounting operation execution unit 126 sends a command to the relay stage camera 28 to capture an image of the component P held by the mounting nozzle 40 and output it to the second recognition unit 156. As shown in FIG. 28C, the relay stage camera 28 arranged below captures the component P that has been lifted from the temporary placement unit 70 by moving diagonally upward. Based on the captured image (second image), the second recognition unit 156 of the control unit 35 recognizes the component P. The recognition of the component P at this timing is "post-pickup component recognition (second component recognition)" performed after the mounting head 14 picks up the component P. The second recognition unit 156 recognizes the positional deviation between the component P held by the mounting nozzle 40 and the mounting nozzle 40. Specifically, a well-known image recognition technology is used to calculate the deviation (ΔX, ΔY) between the center of the mounting nozzle 40 and the center of the component P, as well as the angle difference (Δθ) between the orientation of the mounting nozzle 40 and the orientation of the component P. These deviations and angle differences are output to the target position calculation unit 136 as the post-pickup part recognition results (arrow (B) in Figure 25).

The component thickness measurement unit 128 acquires the minimum value of the height of the mounting nozzle 40 (S24). Specifically, the component thickness measurement unit 128 of the main body control unit 102 reads and acquires the minimum value of the height of the mounting nozzle 40 stored in the lowest point memory unit 122 of the motor control unit 112 in step S21.

The component thickness measuring unit 128 calculates the thickness of the component P (S25). Specifically, the component thickness measuring unit 128 calculates the thickness of the component P based on the minimum value of the height of the mounting nozzle 40 acquired in step S24 and the first reference height H1 of the relay stage 26 stored in the reference height memory unit 146. Since the minimum value of the height of the mounting nozzle 40 corresponds to the height of the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 when the mounting nozzle 40 contacts the component P as shown in FIG. 28B, the thickness of the component P can be calculated by finding the difference from the first reference height H1 of the relay stage 26. The calculated thickness of the component P is stored in the memory unit of the main body control unit 102 as the component thickness (measured value) 150.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 determines whether there are any incomplete mounting nozzles 40 that have not yet finished picking up the component P (S26).

If there are any mounting nozzles 40 that have not yet executed steps S17 to S25 among the multiple mounting nozzles 40 for one turn, it is determined that there is an incomplete mounting nozzle 40 (YES in S26), and steps S17 to S26 are executed again. In other words, the pickup process of the component P and the calculation of the thickness of the component P are executed for each of the multiple mounting nozzles 40 (#1 to #8) provided on the mounting head 14.

When steps S17 to S25 have been performed for all of the multiple mounted nozzles 40 for one turn, it is determined that there are no incomplete mounted nozzles 40 (NO in S26), and the process of the flowchart shown in Figure 27 ends.

The component mounting device 1 of the first embodiment repeatedly executes the process of the flowchart shown in FIG. 27 for each turn. As a result, the mounting nozzle 40 sequentially picks up the component P and calculates the thickness for each turn according to the mounting order of the mounting program 138.

Returning to FIG. 26, the mounting head 14 moves to the working area A with the multiple mounting nozzles 40 picking up components P. This allows multiple components P to be transported in a batch. During this batch transport, the target position calculation unit 136 determines the target position (X2, Y2, θ2, Z2) of each mounting nozzle 40 when mounting the components P on the board 2.

The method for calculating the target position (X2, Y2, θ2, Z2) by the target position calculation unit 136 is explained in FIG. 25.

25, the first calculation unit 136A of the target position calculation unit 136 calculates the target position (X2, Y2, θ2) based on (A) the mounting point data 148 (X1, Y1, θ1) and (B) the post-pickup component recognition result. Specifically, the tentative target position indicated by the mounting point data 148 (X1, Y1, θ1) is corrected using the post-pickup component recognition result (ΔX, ΔY, Δθ) to calculate the target position (X2, Y2, θ2).

When the mounting head 14 picks up a component directly from the component supply units 8 and 10 (when the component P is other than a microcomponent) as in the seventh and eighth turns of the first embodiment, the recognition of the component P is performed by the component recognition in which the image captured by the component camera 32 (FIG. 1) is processed by the third recognition unit 158. In this case, instead of the component recognition result after picking up (B), (C) the component recognition result by the third recognition unit 158 is used to correct the mounting point data 148 (X1, Y1, θ1) and calculate the target position (X2, Y2, θ2). The component recognition result by the third recognition unit 158 is obtained by capturing an image of the component P (other than a microcomponent) adsorbed to the mounting head 14 by the component camera 32, and the third component recognition unit 158 recognizes the component P based on the captured image.

The second calculation unit 136B of the target position calculation unit 136 calculates the target height (Z2) based on (D) the mounting point data 148 (Z1), (E) the component thickness (measured value) 150, and (H) the second reference height H2. Specifically, the target height (Z2) to which the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P is to be moved can be calculated by adding the component thickness (measured value) 150 obtained by the measurement in step S25 to the reference height (Z1) included in the mounting point data 148.

(4) The target position (X2, Y2, θ2) calculated by the first calculation unit 136A and (5) the target height (Z2) calculated by the second calculation unit 136B are stored in the memory unit 103 of the main body control unit 102 as the target position 140.

Next, the component mounting process will be described with reference to FIG. 29. FIG. 29 shows a flow of the process of mounting a component P by the mounting head 14. Each process in the flowchart shown in FIG. 29 is executed by the mounting operation execution unit 126.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 acquires the target position (X2, Y2, θ2, Z2) (S27). Specifically, the mounting operation execution unit 126 acquires the target position (X2, Y2, θ2, Z2) calculated by the target position calculation unit 136.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 positions the mounting nozzle 40 at the mounting point (S28). Specifically, under the control of the mounting operation execution unit 126, the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P to be mounted on the board 2 is positioned in the XY and θ directions according to the mounting order of the mounting program 138. When positioning, the mounting nozzle 40 is moved toward the target position (X2, Y2, θ2) acquired in step S27. In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 30A, the mounting nozzle 40 is positioned by moving it diagonally downward while lowering it in the Z direction.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 determines whether the mounting point is a designated mounting point (S29). Specifically, the mounting operation execution unit 126 determines whether the mounting point on the board 2 on which the component P is to be mounted is designated as a designated mounting point in the mounting program 138. In the example of the mounting program 138 shown in FIG. 19, the mounting points corresponding to the first to ninth components P in the mounting order are designated as designated mounting points, and mounting points from the tenth component onwards are not designated as designated mounting points. Therefore, all mounting points on which components are mounted in the first turn are designated mounting points.

If it is determined that the mounting point is the designated mounting point (YES in S29), the control unit 35 starts the descent of the mounting nozzle 40 (S30) and determines whether contact has been detected (S31). In step S31, using the same contact detection method as in step S20 described above, it is determined whether the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P has contacted the mounting point on the board 2.

If contact of the mounting nozzle 40 is not detected (NO in S31), the mounting nozzle 40 continues to descend. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 30B, when the component P held by the mounting nozzle 40 comes into contact with the upper surface of the board 2, contact of the mounting nozzle 40 is detected (YES in S31).

When contact of the mounting nozzle 40 is detected, the mounting operation execution unit 126 releases the suction by the mounting nozzle 40 (vacuum break) and raises the mounting nozzle 40 (S34). In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 30C, the mounting nozzle 40 is raised in an oblique direction while moving upward.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 obtains the minimum value (S35). Specifically, using a method similar to that of step S21 described above, the minimum value of the height of the mounting nozzle 40 stored in the lowest point memory unit 122 is read and obtained for the output value during a predetermined period immediately before the mounting nozzle 40 is raised after contact is detected (YES in S31). This minimum value is the height position of the mounting nozzle 40 when the component P is mounted on the board 2.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 instructs the mounting point height measurement unit 132 to calculate the mounting point height (S36). The mounting point height measurement unit 132, which has received this instruction, calculates the mounting point height. Specifically, since the minimum value of the mounting nozzle 40 acquired in step S35 corresponds to the height Z3 of the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P in contact with the mounting point on the board 2 as shown in FIG. 30B, the mounting point height Z4, which is the height of the mounting point on the board 2, can be calculated by subtracting the component thickness (measurement value) 150. The calculated mounting point height Z4 is stored in the memory unit 103 of the main body control unit 102 as the mounting point height (measurement value) 152. In this way, in the first embodiment, the component thickness used when calculating the mounting point height is not a catalog value, but an accurate value measured for the component P actually mounted on the mounting point, so that an accurate mounting point height can be obtained.

The mounting operation execution unit 126 determines whether there are any incomplete mounting nozzles 40 (S37). Specifically, the determination is made based on whether there are any mounting nozzles 40 that have not executed steps S28 to S36 among the multiple mounting nozzles 40 for one turn according to the mounting order of the mounting program 138.

If there are any mounted nozzles 40 among the multiple mounted nozzles 40 for one turn that have not yet executed steps S28 to S36, it is determined that there are incomplete mounted nozzles 40 (YES in S37), and steps S28 to S37 are executed again.

When steps S28 to S36 have been executed for all of the multiple mounting nozzles 40 for one turn, it is determined that there are no incomplete mounting nozzles 40 (NO in S37), and the component mounting process ends. This completes the component mounting process for the first turn. The component mounting device 1 repeatedly executes a series of processes from setting the mounting data 148 by the target position calculation unit 136 to the component mounting process (FIG. 29) for each turn, and sequentially performs mounting of components P by the mounting nozzles 40 from the second turn onwards, and calculation of the mounting point height Z4 of the board 2 on which the components P are mounted, according to the mounting order of the mounting program 138.

In the example of mounting program 138 shown in FIG. 19, the mounting points corresponding to components P that are first through ninth in the mounting order are specified as designated mounting points. Of these, components P that are first through sixth in the mounting order are programmed to be mounted in the first turn, and components P that are seventh through ninth in the mounting order are programmed to be mounted in the second turn. For this reason, when the flow shown in FIG. 29 is executed for components P in the first and second turns, it is determined that all mounting points (first through ninth in the mounting order) are designated mounting points (YES in S29), and the processes of steps S30, S31, and S34 to S36 are executed for each mounting point. As a result, mounting point height H4 is calculated for all nine designated mounting points.

When the mounting point height H4 has been calculated for all specified mounting points, the mounting point height estimation unit 134 performs an estimation process for the heights of mounting points other than the specified mounting points.

The flow of the mounting point height estimation process is shown in Figure 31. Each process in the flowchart shown in Figure 31 is executed by the mounting point height estimation unit 134.

The mounting point height estimation unit 134 determines whether the turn has ended (S38). Specifically, it determines whether the component mounting process (FIG. 29) has ended.

When the mounting point height estimation unit 134 determines that the turn has ended (Yes in S38), it determines whether the heights of all the specified mounting points have been acquired (S39). In the example shown in FIG. 19, when the mounting point heights (measured values) 152 for the first to ninth mounting points in the mounting order have been acquired, it determines that the heights of all the mounting points have been acquired (Yes in S39) and proceeds to step S40.

In this embodiment, when the first turn ends, the first through sixth mounting point heights (measured values) 152 have been acquired, so even if it is determined that the first turn has ended in the flow of FIG. 31, it is determined that the heights of all the specified mounting points have not been acquired (NO in S39), so the processing from S40 onwards is not executed. After that, when the second turn ends and the first through ninth mounting point heights (measured values) 152 have been acquired (YES in S39), the processing from S40 onwards is executed.

The mounting point height estimation unit 134 calculates the board shape (S40). Specifically, mounting point heights (measured values) 152 for multiple specified mounting points are acquired (arrow (G) in FIG. 25), and the overall shape of the board 2 is calculated based on the acquired mounting point heights (measured values) 152. In the first embodiment, "surface correction" is used when calculating the board shape. For example, a method such as that described in JP 2019-61989 may be used as a method of surface correction. Not limited to surface correction, any calculation method capable of calculating the overall shape of the board 2 may be used. By calculating the overall shape of the board 2, the height at any position on the board 2 can be calculated.

Figure 32 is a schematic front view showing a state in which nine designated mounting points 172 are designated from among a plurality of mounting points 170 on the board 2. As shown in Figure 32, a plurality of reference marks 174 are provided at the corners of the board 2, and are used by the first recognition unit 154 to recognize the position of the board 2 based on the image captured by the head camera 16 described above.

In the example shown in FIG. 32, multiple designated mounting points 172 are evenly distributed. This improves the calculation accuracy when calculating the board shape using surface correction. The more designated mounting points 172 there are, the higher the calculation accuracy of the board shape will be, so by providing a total of nine designated mounting points 172, the calculation accuracy can be further improved.

Figure 33 is a schematic front view showing an example in which a board 176 has multiple divided boards 178. In the example shown in Figure 33, the board 176 has four divided boards 178, and nine designated mounting points 180 are specified for each divided board 178. In such a case, the board shape for each divided board 178 can be calculated to more accurately calculate the overall shape of the board 176.

The mounting point height estimation unit 134 calculates the heights of the other mounting points (S41). Specifically, the mounting point height estimation unit 134 calculates the estimated heights of the other mounting points that are not designated as the designated mounting points, based on the shape of the board 2 calculated in step S40. In other words, it estimates the heights of mounting points on which the component P is not mounted.

The mounting point height estimator 134 updates the mounting point data (Z1) (S42). Specifically, the mounting point height estimator 134 updates the value of Z1 in the mounting point data 148 based on the estimated height of the mounting point calculated in step S41 (arrow (6) in FIG. 25). Then, the flow shown in FIG. 31 ends. In the first embodiment, after the second turn is completed, the mounting point height estimator 134 executes a height estimation process for mounting points other than the designated mounting point, and the mounting point data (Z1) is updated. That is, it is updated to a value that reflects the actual deformation of the board 2. Therefore, for the third turn and onward, the target height (Z2) is calculated using the updated mounting point data (Z1), so that the height of the mounting nozzle 40 during component mounting can be appropriately controlled to realize high-quality component mounting with fewer mounting errors and less misalignment of the component P after mounting.

Next, the component mounting process after components P have been mounted at all of the designated mounting points will be described with reference to FIG. 29. In the first embodiment, component mounting at mounting points other than the designated mounting points begins from the third turn (the tenth mounting point or later). In the flow shown in FIG. 29, it is determined that the mounting point is not a designated mounting point (NO in S29), and the process proceeds to step S32. The mounting operation execution unit 126 lowers the mounting nozzle 40 (S32), and determines whether the mounting nozzle 40 has reached the target height (Z2) (S33).

When steps S32 and S33 are taken, contact detection of component P (S31) is not performed as when the designated mounting point is determined, so the mounting nozzle 40 can be lowered at high speed toward the target height (Z2). In other words, after the mounting point height estimation process is performed, the mounting nozzle 40 can be lowered at high speed to mount the component P, improving productivity.

If the mounting point is a designated mounting point (YES in S29), the mounting nozzle 40 is lowered at a low speed (S30) to detect contact between the component P and the board 2 (S31). On the other hand, if the mounting point is not a designated mounting point (NO in S29), the target height (Z2) of the mounting point has been calculated by the mounting point height estimation process, so the mounting nozzle 40 can be lowered at high speed toward the target height (Z2) (S32, S33). In either case, the mounting nozzle 40 can be lowered to a position where the component P contacts the board 2 as shown in FIG. 30B, and the component P can be mounted at the mounting point on the board 2.

Returning to FIG. 26, in the work area A, the mounting head 14 mounts components P on the board 2 in each turn. As described above, in the first and second turns, the mounting nozzle 40 is lowered at a slow speed in order to mount components P with contact detection, whereas from the third turn onwards, the mounting nozzle 40 is lowered to a target height based on an estimate of the mounting point height, so the mounting nozzle 40 is lowered at a high speed, improving processing speed.

The calculation of the target position (X2, Y2, Z2, θ2) by the target position calculation unit 136 described above can be performed while the mounting head 14 picks up the component P on the relay stage 26 and moves to the work area A. This can improve work efficiency.

As shown in FIG. 26, the removal head 12 repeatedly performs a removal operation to remove micro-components from the first component supply unit 6, a transport operation to transport the removed micro-components collectively to the relay stage 26, a placement operation to place the micro-components on the relay stage 26, and a return operation to return to the first component supply unit 6.

Similarly, the mounting head 14 repeatedly performs, for each turn, a movement operation to move from the work area A to the relay stage 26, a pickup operation to pick up the micro-components placed on the relay stage 26, a transport operation to transport the picked-up micro-components all at once to the work area A, and a mounting operation to mount the micro-components on the substrate 2 in the work area A.

In the first embodiment, the number of extraction nozzles 36 in the extraction head 12 is greater than the number of mounting nozzles 40 in the mounting head 14, and the number of micro-components that can be transported to the relay stage 26 at once can also be increased. In particular, in the first embodiment, the number of extraction nozzles 36 (16) is twice the number of mounting nozzles 40 (8), and as shown in FIG. 26, for example, the mounting head 14 can be controlled to perform two turns of work while the extraction head 12 performs one turn of work. This can improve work efficiency.

26, the sixth and subsequent turns of the mounting head 14 include a turn in which, instead of the first component supply unit 6 on the FRONT side, the mounting head 14 picks up a component P (small or medium-sized component) from the second component supply unit 8 or the third component supply unit 10 on the REAR side and mounts it on the board 2. The mounting head 14 picks up the component P from the component supply units 8 and 10, moves above the component camera 32 to capture an image of the component P with the component camera 32 and recognize the component, and then moves to the work area A. In the work area A, the mounting operation of mounting the component P on the mounting point of the board 2 is sequentially performed for each mounting nozzle 40, as in the case of a minute component. The target position of the mounting nozzle 40 in the mounting operation is determined using the value of the mounting point data 148 based on the initial value of the mounting program 138, etc., and the mounting nozzle 40 is lowered at high speed to mount the component P on the board 2.

As described above, component mounting can be performed by switching between component supply units 6, 8, and 10 that supply components P on a turn-by-turn basis.

(Action/Effect 1)
As described above, the component mounting device 1 of embodiment 1 is a component mounting device that picks up components P from the first component supply unit 6 and mounts them on the board 2, and is equipped with an relay stage 26 on which a plurality of components P can be placed, a removal head 12 (first component transfer section) that picks up components P from the first component supply unit 6 and transfers them to the relay stage 26, a relay stage camera 28 that images the plurality of components P on the relay stage 26 to obtain a first image, a mounting head 14 (second component transfer section) that has a plurality of mounting nozzles 40 that hold the components P and picks up the components P on the relay stage 26 with the mounting nozzles 40 and mounts them on the board 2, and a control unit 35. The control unit 35 performs pre-pickup component recognition (first component recognition) to recognize multiple components P on the relay stage 26 using the first image, controls the mounting head 14 to use the results of the pre-pickup component recognition to sequentially perform a pick-up operation for each mounting nozzle 40 to align the mounting nozzle 40 with the component P on the relay stage 26 and pick up the component P, performs a transport operation to move the mounting nozzle 40 that has picked up the component P above the board 2, and sequentially performs a mounting operation for each mounting nozzle 40 to mount the component P held by the mounting nozzle 40 to a mounting point on the board 2.

The component mounting method of the first embodiment is a component mounting method for taking out a component P from the first component supply unit 6 and mounting it on the board 2, in which the control unit 35 controls the take-out head 12 to take out the component P from the first component supply unit 6 and transfer it to the relay stage 26, the control unit 35 controls the relay stage camera 28 to capture an image of the multiple components P on the relay stage 26 to obtain a first image, the control unit 35 executes pre-pickup component recognition for recognizing the multiple components P on the relay stage 26 using the first image, the control unit 35 controls the mounting head 14 having multiple mounting nozzles 40 to use the results of the pre-pickup component recognition to sequentially execute a pick-up operation for aligning the mounting nozzle 40 with the component P on the relay stage 26 and picking up the component P for each mounting nozzle 40, executes a transport operation for moving the mounting nozzle 40 that has picked up the component P above the board 2, and executes a mounting operation for mounting the component P held by the mounting nozzle 40 to a mounting point on the board 2 for each mounting nozzle 40.

According to such an apparatus/method, by aligning the mounting nozzle 40 with the component P on the relay stage 26 and then holding the component P, the component P can be mounted on the board 2 with its posture stabilized, realizing higher quality component mounting. In addition, even when holding a very small component as the component P, the area of the component P that protrudes from the holding surface of the mounting nozzle 40 can be reduced, making it suitable for "narrow adjacent mounting" in which the components P are mounted on the board 2 with close spacing between them as shown in Figures 34A and 34B. Furthermore, since multiple components P on the relay stage 26 are imaged and recognized at the same time, the pickup operation of the components P by the multiple mounting nozzles 40 can be efficiently performed.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the control unit 35 further has a second recognition unit 156 (component recognition unit) that recognizes the component P based on an image captured by the relay stage camera 28, and the control unit 35 controls the mounting nozzle 40 to align the center of the lower end face of the mounting nozzle 40 with the center of the component P recognized by the second recognition unit 156 and pick up the component P. As a result, the component P is picked up by aligning the center of the lower end face of the mounting nozzle 40 with the center of the component P, so that the component P can be held in a stable attitude by the mounting nozzle 40, and the movement of the mounting nozzle 40 is prevented from disturbing the attitude of the component P, and the component P can be mounted in an appropriate attitude at the mounting point. This is particularly effective when mounting small components.

Furthermore, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the relay stage 26 has a temporary placement section 70 on which the component P is placed, the temporary placement section 70 allows the component P to be seen from below, and the relay stage camera 28 is disposed below the temporary placement section 70. As a result, the relay stage camera 28 can be disposed below the temporary placement section 70 and images of the component P can be captured without interfering with the movement of the extraction head 12. Furthermore, the extraction head 12 does not interfere with the capture of images of the component P.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, a plurality of relay stage cameras 28 are provided, and the first image is acquired by the plurality of relay stage cameras 28. This allows the area of the temporary placement section 70 to be large, and the mounting work of many components P can be performed efficiently.

Furthermore, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the control unit 35 further controls the relay stage camera 28 to capture an image of the component P held by the mounting nozzle 40 to obtain a second image. As a result, by using the same relay stage camera 28 to capture an image of the component P after pick-up, it is not necessary to capture an image of the component P after pick-up with a component recognition camera separate from the relay stage camera 28, and it is not necessary for the mounting nozzle 40 to move above the component camera 32. This makes it possible to eliminate unnecessary operations and achieve highly productive component mounting.

Furthermore, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the control unit 35 further uses the second image to perform post-pickup component recognition to recognize the component P held by the mounting nozzle 40, and calculates the target position for mounting the component P at the mounting point in the mounting operation using the results of the post-pickup component recognition. This makes it possible to improve the mounting accuracy of the component P, and to achieve component mounting with fewer mounting errors and closely spaced mounting.

Furthermore, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the control unit 35 moves the multiple mounting nozzles 40, each holding a component P, above the substrate 2 during the transport operation to transport the multiple components P collectively. This allows the multiple components P to be transported collectively from the relay stage 26 to above the substrate 2, thereby improving the efficiency of the component mounting process.

According to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the take-out head 12 includes a plurality of take-out nozzles 36, and the control unit 35 controls the take-out head 12 to sequentially perform a take-out operation for each take-out nozzle 36 to take out components P from the first component supply unit 6, perform a transport operation for transporting the plurality of take-out nozzles 36 above the relay stage 26 while the plurality of take-out nozzles 36 are holding the plurality of components P, and perform a placement operation for placing the components P held by the take-out nozzles 36 on the relay stage 26, sequentially, for each take-out nozzle 36. As a result, the work efficiency of component mounting can be improved by transporting the plurality of components P from the first component supply unit 6 to the relay stage 26 all at once.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the number of take-out nozzles 36 in the take-out head 12 is greater than the number of mounting nozzles 40 in the mounting head 14. As a result, a greater number of components P can be transferred to the relay stage 26 in one batch transport by the take-out head 12 than in one batch transport by the mounting head 14, improving the work efficiency of component mounting.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the arrangement pitch of the take-out nozzles 36 in the take-out head 12 is the same as or 1/n (n is an integer equal to or greater than 1) the arrangement pitch of the mounting nozzles 40 in the mounting head 14. This can improve the work efficiency of component mounting.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the number of take-out nozzles 36 in the take-out head 12 (16 nozzles) is twice the number of mounting nozzles 40 in the mounting head 14 (8 nozzles). As a result, for example, in one batch transport of the take-out head 12, the components P from two or more batch transports of the mounting head can be transferred to the relay stage 26, thereby improving the work efficiency of component mounting. Note that the number of take-out nozzles 36 is not limited to twice the number of mounting nozzles 40, and may be more than twice as many.

(Action/Effect 2)
As described above, the component mounting device 1 of embodiment 1 is a component mounting device that mounts a component P at a mounting point of the substrate 2, and includes a mounting nozzle 40 that holds the component P and mounts it on the substrate 2, a servo motor 56 (motor) that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle 40, a height detection unit 120 (mounting nozzle height detection unit) that detects the height of the mounting nozzle 40, an intermediate stage 26 having a mounting surface 71 (first reference surface), a backup pin 98 (substrate holding unit 99) that holds the substrate 2 brought into the work area A, a substrate pressing member 95 provided in the work area A and having an upper surface 95A (second reference surface), and a control unit 35. The control unit 35 includes a reference height setting unit 130 which sets a first reference height H1 based on the height detected by the height detection unit 120 when the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is brought into contact with the placement surface 71 of the intermediate stage 26, and which sets a second reference height H2 based on the height detected by the height detection unit 120 when the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is brought into contact with the upper surface 95A of the board pressing member 95; and a reference height setting unit 130 which sets a second reference height H2 based on the height detected by the height detection unit 120 when the component P is sandwiched between the placement surface 71 and the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 and the first reference height H1. a mounting point data 148 (mounting point height memory unit) that stores the height of the mounting point of the board 2 held in the work area A; a target position calculation unit 136 that calculates a target height (Z2) for lowering the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P toward the mounting point based on the height of the mounting point stored in the mounting point data 148, the thickness of the component P measured by the component thickness measurement unit 128, and a second reference height H2; and a motor control unit 112 that controls the servo motor 56 based on the target height (Z2).

In addition, the component mounting method of embodiment 1 is a component mounting method for mounting a component P on a mounting point of a substrate 2, in which the control unit 35 controls the mounting nozzle 40 that holds the component P to bring the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 into contact with the mounting surface 71 of the intermediate stage 26, and sets a first reference height H1 from the height detected by a height detection unit 120 that can detect the height of the mounting nozzle 40, controls the mounting nozzle 40 to bring the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 into contact with an upper surface 95A of a substrate pressing member 95 provided in the working area A of the substrate 2, and sets a second reference height H2 from the height detected by the height detection unit 120, and the control unit 35 , the mounting nozzle 40 is controlled to sandwich the component P between the placement surface 71 and the bottom surface of the mounting nozzle 40, and the thickness of the component P is calculated based on the height detected by the height detection unit 120 and the first reference height H1. The control unit 35 calculates a target height (Z2) for lowering the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P toward the mounting point based on the calculated thickness of the component P, the height of the mounting point stored in the mounting point data 138, and the second reference height H2. The control unit 35 controls the servo motor 56 that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle 40 based on the target height (Z2), and lowers the mounting nozzle 40 toward the mounting point.

With this type of device/method, the thickness of the component P can be measured using the height detection function of the mounting nozzle 40, eliminating the need for a dedicated measuring device for measuring the thickness of the component, making it possible to reduce the size and weight of the mounting head 40 and realizing a highly productive component mounting device 1.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the mounting nozzle 40 is replaceably attached to a shaft 42 that is driven to move up and down by a servo motor 56, and the reference height setting unit 130 sets a first reference height H1 and a second reference height H2 for each mounting nozzle 40. By setting the first reference height H1 and the second reference height H2 for each mounting nozzle 40, component thickness measurement and component mounting can be performed without being affected by individual differences in the mounting nozzle 40.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, multiple mounting nozzles 40 are provided and are replaceably attached to multiple shafts 42 that are driven to move up and down by servo motors 56, and the reference height setting unit 130 sets a first reference height H1 and a second reference height H2 for each combination of mounting nozzles 40 and shafts 42. By setting the first reference height H1 and the second reference height H2 for each combination of mounting nozzles 40 and shafts 42, component thickness measurement and component mounting can be performed without being affected by individual differences in mounting nozzles 40 and shafts 42.

Furthermore, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the component thickness measurement unit 128 measures the thickness of the component P based on the height detected by the height detection unit 120 when the component P placed on the mounting surface 71 is picked up by the mounting nozzle 40, and the target position calculation unit 136 calculates the target height (Z2) while the mounting nozzle 40 moves to the work area A after picking up the component P. This makes it possible to measure the component thickness and calculate the target height (Z2) during a series of operations from picking up the component P to mounting it.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the component thickness measurement unit 128 measures the thickness of the component P based on the value indicating the lowest point (minimum value) among the values detected by the height detection unit 120 during a predetermined period immediately before the mounting nozzle 40 that picked up the component P leaves the mounting surface 71. This makes it possible to measure the thickness of the component P more accurately by using the minimum value during a period that is less susceptible to the effects of impact during pick-up.

Furthermore, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the device further includes a relay stage camera 28 that captures an image of the component P placed on the mounting surface 71, and the control unit 35 further includes a second recognition unit 156 (component recognition unit) that recognizes the component P based on the image captured by the relay stage camera 28, and the control unit 35 controls the mounting nozzle 40 to align the center of the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 with the center of the component P recognized by the second recognition unit 156 and pick up the component P. As a result, the thickness of the component P can be measured more accurately because the center of the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is aligned with the center of the component P and the component P is picked up.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the first reference member having the first reference surface is an intermediate stage 26 on which the component P supplied from the first component supply unit 6 is temporarily placed. Thus, by providing the intermediate stage 26, the component P can be temporarily placed before being mounted on the board 2.

Furthermore, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the second reference member having the second reference surface is a board pressing member 95 that presses from above and positions the board 2 supported from below by the backup pins 98. This allows the board pressing member 95 to be used as a reference member for setting the second reference height H2.

(Action/Effect 3)
As described above, the component mounting device 1 of embodiment 1 is a component mounting device that mounts a component P at a mounting point of a board 2 brought into the work area A, and is equipped with a mounting nozzle 40 that holds the component P and mounts it on the board 2, a servo motor 56 that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle 40, a height detection unit 120 (mounting nozzle height detection unit) that detects the height of the mounting nozzle 40, and a control unit 35. The control unit 35 includes a mounting point height measurement unit 132 that measures the height of the mounting point based on the height of the mounting nozzle 40 detected by the height detection unit 120 when the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P mounts the component P at the mounting point and the thickness of the component P; a mounting point height estimation unit 134 that calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which the component P is not mounted based on the heights of the multiple mounting points measured by the mounting point height measurement unit 132; a target position calculation unit that calculates a target height (Z2) for lowering the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P toward the mounting point based on the estimated height of the mounting point and the thickness of the component P to be mounted at the mounting point; and a motor control unit 112 that controls the servo motor 56 based on the target height (Z2).

The component mounting method of the first embodiment is a component mounting method for mounting a component P on a mounting point of a board 2 brought into the working area A, in which the control unit 35 controls the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P to mount the component P on the mounting point of the board 2, the control unit 35 uses the height detection unit 120 that detects the height of the mounting nozzle 40 to measure the height of the mounting point based on the height of the mounting nozzle 40 detected by the height detection unit 120 when the mounting nozzle 40 mounts the component P on the mounting point and the thickness of the component P, the control unit 35 calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which the component P is not mounted based on the measured heights of the multiple mounting points, the control unit 35 calculates a target height (Z2) for lowering the mounting nozzle 40 holding the component P toward the mounting point based on the estimated height of the mounting point and the thickness of the component P to be mounted on the mounting point, and the control unit 35 controls the servo motor 56 that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle 40 based on the target height (Z2) to lower the mounting nozzle 40 toward the mounting point.

According to this device/method, the height information of the mounting point measured when the mounting nozzle 40 mounts the component P at the mounting point is used to estimate the height of other mounting points where the component P is not mounted, so that the components can be mounted using the estimated height and a dedicated measuring device for measuring the height of the mounting point is not required. This makes it possible to simplify the component mounting device 1 while improving work efficiency.

According to the component mounting device/component mounting method of the first embodiment, the relay stage 26 having the mounting surface 71 as a reference surface is further provided. The control unit 35 further includes a reference height setting unit 130 that sets a first reference height H1 based on the height detected by the height detection unit 120 when the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 is brought into contact with the mounting surface 71, and a component thickness measurement unit 128 that measures the thickness of the component P based on the height detected by the height detection unit 120 when the component P is sandwiched between the mounting surface 71 and the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle 40 and the reference height, and the mounting point height measurement unit 132 measures the height of the mounting point using the thickness of the component P measured by the component thickness measurement unit 128. As a result, by measuring the thickness of the component P using the relay stage 26 in which the first reference height H1 is set, the height of the mounting point can be measured with high accuracy even if there is variation in the thickness of the component P. As a result, the reliability of the estimated height of the mounting point calculated by the mounting point height estimation unit 134 is improved, and highly reliable component mounting can be realized.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the component thickness measurement unit 128 calculates the thickness of the component P based on the height detected by the height detection unit 120 when the component P placed on the mounting surface 71 is picked up by the mounting nozzle 40. This makes it possible to perform component thickness measurement and target height calculation during a series of operations from picking up the component P to mounting it.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, some of the mounting points 170 are set as a plurality of designated mounting points 172 for the mounting point height estimator 134 to calculate the estimated height, and the mounting point height estimator 134 calculates the estimated height of the mounting point 170 at which the component P is not mounted based on the height obtained from the plurality of designated mounting points 172. As a result, by setting the designated mounting point 172 in advance, the optimal mounting point 170 can be set as the designated mounting point 172, and the reliability of the estimated height of the mounting point 170 calculated by the mounting point height estimator 134 is improved.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the motor control unit 112 has a contact detection unit 118 that detects when the component P or the mounting nozzle 40 comes into contact with the mounting point 170, and the control unit 35 controls the mounting nozzle 40 to lower until the contact detection unit 118 detects contact when mounting the component P at the mounting point 170 set as the designated mounting point 172, and controls the mounting nozzle 40 to lower until it reaches the target height (Z2) calculated by the target position calculation unit 136 when mounting the component P at a mounting point 170 other than the designated mounting point 172. As a result, the mounting time of the component P can be shortened to increase productivity, since the mounting point 170 other than the designated mounting point 172 is mounted without contact detection.

Furthermore, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the board 176 includes multiple divided boards 178, and multiple designated mounting points 180 are set for each divided board 178. As a result, even if the board 176 includes multiple divided boards 178, by setting multiple designated mounting points 180 for each divided board 178, the estimated height of the mounting points can be calculated accurately over the entire board 176.

In addition, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 1, the designated mounting points 172, 204 are set to nine or more mounting points. This allows the estimated height of the mounting points to be calculated with high accuracy.

(Embodiment 2)
A component mounting device and a component mounting method using the same according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Note that in the second embodiment, differences from the first embodiment will be mainly described, and descriptions that overlap with the first embodiment will be omitted.

The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that height measurements are also performed for mounting points other than the specified mounting points, and the estimated height of the board 2 is updated using the newly obtained height information for the mounting points.

Figure 35 is a flowchart of the component mounting process in embodiment 2.

As shown in FIG. 35, after steps S27 and S28 are executed as in the first embodiment, component mounting with contact detection is performed (S130, S131) without judging whether the mounting point is a designated mounting point (S29). The control unit 35 starts lowering the mounting nozzle 40 (S130) regardless of whether the mounting point is a designated mounting point, and judges whether contact of the mounting nozzle 40 is detected (S131). Steps S130 and S131 are the same processes as steps S30 and S31 in the first embodiment, respectively.

According to the above method, it is possible to calculate the mounting point height by contact detection even for mounting points that are not designated as specified mounting points (S36), and it is possible to update the estimated mounting point height results.

Figure 36 is a flowchart of the mounting point height estimation process in embodiment 2.

As shown in FIG. 36, steps S38 to S42 are executed similarly to the first embodiment, and then step S143 is executed. Specifically, the control unit 35 determines whether or not to update the next turn as well (S143). If it is determined that the next turn will also be updated (YES in S143), steps S38 to S42 are executed again, and the mounting point data 148 (Z1) is updated for the next turn as well (S42).

The determination of whether to update in step S143 may be performed, for example, by setting a threshold for the number of updates, and determining that the next turn will also be updated if the number of updates is equal to or less than the threshold (YES in S143), and determining that the next turn will not be updated if the number of updates is greater than the threshold (NO in S143). Alternatively, if components P have not been mounted on all mounting points for which the component mounting device 1 is responsible, it may be determined that the next turn will also be updated (YES in S143), and if components P have been mounted on all mounting points for which the component mounting device 1 is responsible, it may be determined that the next turn will also not be updated (NO in S143).

According to the above flow, as long as it is determined in step S143 that the next turn should also be updated, the mounting point heights newly obtained in step S36 of FIG. 35 can be used to calculate the estimated heights of other mounting points for each turn (S41), and the mounting point data (Z1) can be continually updated (S42). As the number of mounted components P increases, the amount of source data for estimating the mounting point heights increases, and so by recalculating the estimated mounting point heights, the accuracy of the estimated mounting point heights can be improved.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the next turn will not be updated either (NO in S143), the flow shown in FIG. 36 is terminated. When the flow shown in FIG. 36 is terminated, in the flow shown in FIG. 35, instead of the processing in steps S130 and S131, processing similar to steps S32 and S33 in the flow shown in FIG. 29 may be performed. This makes it possible to calculate the target height (Z2) based on a more accurate estimated height of the mounting point, while lowering the mounting nozzle 40 at high speed toward the target height (Z2), thereby enabling component mounting processing to be performed accurately and quickly.

In the second embodiment, in the block diagram shown in FIG. 17, the mounting point height measurement unit 132 also measures the heights of mounting points other than the specified mounting point, and the mounting point height estimation unit 134 calculates the estimated heights of the other mounting points using the height of the specified mounting point and the height of the newly measured mounting point. The mounting point height (measurement value) 152 includes the measurement value of the height of the specified mounting point as well as the measurement value of the height of the mounting point other than the specified mounting point.

In addition, in the flow of data processing by the target position calculation unit 136 shown in FIG. 25, once the mounting point height estimation unit 134 has acquired the height of the specified mounting point, (6) it can perform mounting point height estimation processing for each turn and (5) update the mounting point data 148 (Z1).

As described above, according to the component mounting device/component mounting method of embodiment 2, the mounting point height estimation unit 134 uses the new mounting point height obtained by the mounting point height measurement unit 132 to calculate the estimated height of the mounting point where the component P is not mounted, and updates the already calculated estimated height of the mounting point. This makes it possible to improve the accuracy of the estimated height.

Next, various modified examples will be explained using Figures 37 to 41.

Figure 37 is a schematic plan view of a component mounting device 200 according to a modified example. The component mounting device 200 shown in Figure 37 is mainly different from the first and second embodiments in that it includes two relay stages 228A and 228B, two take-out heads 212A and 212B, and two mounting heads 214A and 214B. As shown in Figure 37, the XY table 217 includes a first X-axis beam 218A, a second X-axis beam 218B, a third X-axis beam 220A, and a fourth X-axis beam 220B. The first X-axis beam 218A supports the first take-out head 212A, the second X-axis beam 218B supports the second take-out head 212B, the third X-axis beam 220A supports the first mounting head 214A, and the fourth X-axis beam 220B supports the second mounting head 214B.

The first take-out head 212A, the first relay stage 228A, and the first mounting head 214A are provided to correspond to the first component supply unit 6. Similarly, the second take-out head 212B, the second relay stage 228B, and the second mounting head 214B are provided to correspond to the second component supply unit 8. With this configuration, it is also possible to accommodate the case where the second component supply unit 8 supplies minute components in the same way as the first component supply unit 6.

Figure 38 is a schematic plan view of a component mounting device 300 according to another modified example. The component mounting device 300 shown in Figure 38 differs from the modified example shown in Figure 37 mainly in that it has only one mounting head 314. As shown in Figure 38, the XY table 317 has a first X-axis beam 218A, a second X-axis beam 218B, and a third X-axis beam 320 that supports the mounting head 314.

The first removal head 212A, the first relay stage 228A and the mounting head 314 are provided to correspond to the first component supply unit 6, and the second removal head 212B, the second relay stage 228B and the mounting head 314 are provided to correspond to the second component supply unit 8. The mounting head 314 can be used for both component supply units 6 and 8.

Figure 39 is a schematic plan view of a component mounting device 400 according to yet another modified example. The component mounting device 400 shown in Figure 39 differs from the modified example shown in Figure 38 mainly in that it does not have a removal head and has only one mounting head 314. As shown in Figure 39, the XY table 417 has a third X-axis beam 320 that supports the mounting head 314.

In the component mounting device 400 shown in FIG. 39, a single mounting head 314 is used to perform all of the following operations: removing components P from component supply units 6 and 8, placing components P on relay stages 228A and 228B, picking up components P from relay stages 228A and 228B, and mounting components P on substrate 2. This simplifies the structure of the component mounting device 400.

Figure 40 is a perspective view showing a mounting head 514 according to yet another modified example. The mounting head 514 shown in Figure 40 includes a head camera 516, multiple mounting nozzles 540, multiple shafts 542, and a main body 544.

As shown in FIG. 40, the multiple mounting nozzles 540 and the multiple shafts 542 are each arranged in a circular ring shape and are configured to be rotatable around a rotation axis G extending in the Z direction. In this way, a rotary type mounting head 514 in which multiple mounting nozzles 540 are arranged in a ring shape may be used in place of the mounting head 14. The removal head 12 may also be of a rotary type.

Figure 41 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view showing a relay stage 626 according to yet another modified example. The relay stage 626 shown in Figure 41 includes a relay stage camera 628, a temporary placement section 670, a housing 674, a light 680, and a diffuser 682.

In the modified example shown in FIG. 41, the relay stage camera 628 is provided above the temporary placement section 670, rather than below it. The relay stage camera 628 is fixed with its imaging direction facing downward. The temporary placement section 670 is constructed of a transparent plate, and light emitted by the lighting 680 is diffused by the diffusion plate 682 and passes through the temporary placement section 670, illuminating the component P. The relay stage camera 628 images the component P in the temporary placement section 670 located below when the removal head 12 or mounting head 14 is not above the temporary placement section 670.

The present invention has been described above using the above-mentioned embodiments 1 and 2, but the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments 1 and 2.

Although the present disclosure has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, various modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such modifications and variations are to be understood as being included within the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims, unless they deviate therefrom. In addition, changes in the combination and order of elements in each embodiment may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.

In addition, by appropriately combining any of the various modifications of the above embodiment, it is possible to achieve the effects of each of them.

The present invention can be applied to any component mounting device and component mounting method.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Component mounting device 2 Substrate 4 Substrate transport unit 5 Transport conveyor 6 First component supply unit 8 Second component supply unit 10 Third component supply unit 12 Take-out head 14 Mounting head 16 Head camera 17 XY table 18, 20 X-axis beam 22, 24 Y-axis table 26 Intermediate stage 28 Intermediate stage camera 30 First component disposal box 32 Component camera 34 Second component disposal box 35 Control unit 36 Take-out nozzle 38 Main body 40 Mounting nozzle 42 Shaft 44 Main body 46 Porous member 46A Bottom surface 48 Suction hole 50 Carrier tape 52 Pocket 54 Suction hole 56 Servo motor
57 Pulley 58 Toothed belt 59 θ-axis motor 60 Pulley 61 Linear motor 62 Encoder 63 Servo motor 64 Pulley 65 Toothed belt 66 θ-axis motor 66A Output shaft 67 Pulley 68 Linear motor 69 Encoder 70 Temporary placement section 71 Placement surface 74 Housing 76 Component removal brush 78 Brush drive mechanism 80 Lighting 82 Diffusion plate 84 Motor 86 Belt cover 88 Belt 90 Connection section 92 Slider 94 Guide 95 Board pressing member 95A Upper surface 95B Lower surface 95M First measurement point 96 Board guide 97 Conveyor belt 98 Backup pin 99 Board holding section 100 Head unit control section 101 Processing section 102 Main body control section 103 Memory section 104 Extraction head control unit 106 Mounting head control unit 108 Motor control unit 110 θ-axis motor control unit 112 Motor control unit 114 θ-axis motor control unit 116 Motor driver 118 Contact detection unit 120 Height detection unit (mounting nozzle height detection unit)
122 lowest point memory unit 124 operation command unit 126 mounting work execution unit 128 component thickness measurement unit 130 reference height setting unit 132 mounting point height measurement unit 134 mounting point height measurement unit 136 target position calculation unit 136A first calculation unit 136B second calculation unit 138 mounting program 140 target position 142 component data 144 board data 146 reference height data 148 mounting point data 150 component thickness (measured value)
152 Mounting point height (measured value)
154 First recognition unit 156 Second recognition unit 158 Third recognition unit 160 Motor driver 168 Operation command unit 170 Mounting point 172 Designated mounting point 174 Reference mark 176 Board 178 Divided board 180 Designated mounting point 200 Component mounting device 212A First take-out head 212B Second take-out head 214A First mounting head 214B Second mounting head 217 XY table 218A First X-axis beam 218B Second X-axis beam 220A Third X-axis beam 220B Fourth X-axis beam 228A First relay stage 228B Second relay stage 300 Component mounting device 314 Mounting head 317 XY table 320 Third X-axis beam 400 Component mounting device 417 XY table 514 Mounting head 516 Head camera 540 Mounting nozzle 542 Shaft 544 Main body 626 Relay stage 628 Relay stage camera 670 Temporary placement section 674 Housing 680 Lighting 682 Diffusion plate

Claims (16)

A component mounting device that mounts components on mounting points of a board brought into a work area,
a mounting nozzle that holds the component and mounts it on the board;
A motor for raising and lowering the mounting nozzle;
a mounting nozzle height detection unit for detecting the height of the mounting nozzle;
A control unit;
a stage having a reference surface ;
The control unit is
a mounting point height measuring unit that measures a height of the mounting point based on a height of the mounting nozzle detected by the mounting nozzle height detecting unit when the mounting nozzle holding a component mounts the component on the mounting point and a thickness of the component;
a mounting point height estimating unit that calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which no component is mounted based on the heights of the plurality of mounting points measured by the mounting point height measuring unit;
a target position calculation unit that calculates a target height for lowering the mounting nozzle holding a component toward the mounting point based on the estimated height of the mounting point and a thickness of the component to be mounted on the mounting point;
a motor control unit that controls the motor based on the target height ,
The control unit further includes:
a reference height setting unit that sets a reference height based on a height detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when a lower end surface of the mounting nozzle is brought into contact with the reference surface;
a component thickness measuring unit that measures a thickness of the component based on a height detected by the mounting nozzle height detecting unit and the reference height when the component placed on the reference surface is sandwiched between the reference surface and the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle and picked up,
the mounting point height measurement unit measures the height of the mounting point using the thickness of the component measured by the component thickness measurement unit;
Parts mounting device. the component thickness measuring unit measures the thickness of the component based on a value indicating the lowest point among values detected by the mounting nozzle height detecting unit during a predetermined period immediately before the mounting nozzle that picked up the component leaves the reference surface;
The component mounting device according to claim 1 . Further, a camera is provided for capturing an image of a component placed on the reference surface,
The control unit further includes a component recognition unit that recognizes components using an image captured by the camera,
the control unit controls the mounting nozzle to align a center of the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle toward a center of the component recognized by the component recognition unit and pick up the component.
3. The component mounting device according to claim 1 or 2 . some of the mounting points are set as a plurality of designated mounting points for the mounting point height estimator to calculate the estimated height;
the mounting point height estimating unit calculates an estimated height of the mounting point on which no component is mounted, based on heights obtained from a plurality of the designated mounting points;
4. The component mounting device according to claim 1. the motor control unit has a contact detection unit that detects when a component or the mounting nozzle comes into contact with a mounting point,
the control unit controls the mounting nozzle to descend until the contact detection unit detects contact when a component is to be mounted at a mounting point set as the designated mounting point, and controls the mounting nozzle to descend until the mounting nozzle reaches the target height calculated by the target position calculation unit when a component is to be mounted at a mounting point other than the designated mounting point.
5. The component mounting device according to claim 4 . The substrate includes a plurality of divided substrates, and a plurality of designated mounting points are set for each of the divided substrates.
6. The component mounting device according to claim 4 or 5 . The designated mounting points are set to 9 or more mounting points.
7. The component mounting device according to claim 4 , wherein the component mounting device is a component mounting device for mounting a component on a substrate. the mounting point height estimating unit calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which no component is mounted, using the new mounting point height obtained by the mounting point height measuring unit, and updates the already calculated estimated height of the mounting point.
8. The component mounting device according to claim 1. A component mounting method for mounting components on mounting points of a board brought into a work area, comprising the steps of:
The control unit sets a reference height based on the height detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle is brought into contact with the reference surface of the stage;
the control unit measures a thickness of the component based on a height detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit and the reference height when the component placed on the reference surface is sandwiched between the reference surface and the lower end surface of the mounting nozzle and picked up;
The control unit controls the mounting nozzle holding the component to mount the component on the mounting point of the board;
using the mounting nozzle height detection unit, the control unit measures a height of the mounting point based on a height of the mounting nozzle detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit when the mounting nozzle mounts a component on the mounting point and a measured thickness of the component;
calculating an estimated height of a mounting point on which no component is mounted based on the measured heights of the mounting points by the control unit;
calculating a target height for lowering the mounting nozzle holding a component toward the mounting point based on an estimated height of the mounting point and a thickness of the component to be mounted on the mounting point by the control unit;
the control unit controls a motor that raises and lowers the mounting nozzle based on the target height, thereby lowering the mounting nozzle toward the mounting point.
Parts mounting method. measuring a thickness of the component based on a value indicating a lowest point among values detected by the mounting nozzle height detection unit during a predetermined period immediately before the mounting nozzle that picked up the component leaves the reference surface;
The component mounting method according to claim 9 . A camera is further provided for capturing an image of the component placed on the reference surface,
moreover,
The control unit recognizes parts using images captured by the camera,
controlling the mounting nozzle by the control unit to align the center of the mounting nozzle toward the center of the recognized component and pick up the component;
The component mounting method according to claim 9 or 10 . A part of the mounting points is set as a plurality of designated mounting points for calculating the estimated height;
calculating an estimated height of the mounting point on which no component is mounted based on the heights obtained from the plurality of designated mounting points;
12. The component mounting method according to claim 9 , wherein the component mounting method comprises the steps of: The control unit includes a contact detection unit that detects when a component contacts a mounting point,
When a component is to be mounted on a mounting point that is set as the designated mounting point, the mounting nozzle is controlled to be lowered until the contact detection unit detects contact, and when a component is to be mounted on a mounting point other than the designated mounting point, the mounting nozzle is controlled to be lowered until the target height is reached.
The component mounting method according to claim 12 . The substrate is provided with a plurality of divided substrates, and a plurality of designated mounting points are set for each of the divided substrates.
The component mounting method according to claim 12 or 13 . The specified mounting points are set to 9 or more mounting points.
15. The component mounting method according to claim 12 , moreover,
the control unit calculates an estimated height of a mounting point on which no component is mounted based on the newly measured height of the mounting point, and updates the already calculated estimated height of the mounting point.
16. The component mounting method according to claim 9 ,

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