JPH0537187A - Conveyer for electronic circuit board - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain stable detection accuracy for boards in various shapes always by providing a means which detects the existence of boards on a longitudinal line in a direction for the boards to be conveyed and counts its number of times, at each of a stand-by station and a mounting station, and confirming the passage of the boards by the coincidence of both counted values. CONSTITUTION:The arrival of a board 12 at the upstream end of a stand-by station from a board supply station on an upstream side is confirmed by a sensor S3, and its output is counted. Next the arrival of the board 12 at the downstream end of the stand-by station is confirmed by a sensor S1 and its output is counted, and whether or not the counted value is equal to that of the sensor S3 is judged. If it is equal, it means that the board 12 has passed the stand-by station completely. And after part-mounting to the board 12 on a mounting station is finished, a motor M2 is started, and the output of a sensor S2 is counted, and it is judged whether the counted value is equal to that of the sensor S1. If it is equal, it means that the board 12 has passed the sensor S2 completely.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic circuit board transfer apparatus, and more specifically, to a board transfer apparatus in the form of a belt conveyor for sequentially transferring the boards and mounting electronic components thereon. The present invention relates to a device in which electronic components are efficiently carried to a position without waiting time and electronic components are efficiently mounted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electronic circuit board provided with a belt conveyor-like transfer device, which transfers a board from an upstream side, waits at a standby station, and then sends it to a mounting station where necessary electronic components are mounted and sent out of a row. A carrier device has been known in the past, and one example thereof is JP-A-3-30496.
The techniques described in No. can be mentioned.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing the conventional apparatus. In this type of apparatus, the presence / absence of a substrate is detected, and when the mounting station is vacant, the substrate is immediately transferred from the standby station and also to the standby station. Needs to transfer a new substrate from a substrate supply station (not shown) on the upstream side. Therefore, in the prior art, sensors S1 and S2 are arranged in the standby station and the mounting station to detect the presence or absence of the substrate. In this case, a light reflection type or a light shielding type optical sensor is used as the sensor,
Usually, when there is light reception (light shielding) near the edge of the substrate shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG. 5, the presence or absence of the substrate is detected by outputting an H level signal.

By the way, the shape of the substrate is not necessarily a rectangular shape, and there are various shapes such as a notched portion at the center of the edge as shown in FIG. 5, which is not uniform. In order to detect the presence / absence of a substrate having a shape as shown in FIG. 5 without error, conventionally, a sensor with a delay circuit is conventionally used, and once the substrate is detected at a front end position or the like, a predetermined time, that is, the substrate is The H-level signal is held for the time when the passage is completed so that the protrusion on the rear end side is not erroneously detected.

[0005]

However, such a sensor is expensive and there is a disadvantage that the movement of the substrate cannot be detected for a predetermined time even after the substrate has passed when it is detected on the rear end side, for example. From that point, change the placement position of the sensor,
Although it may be possible to detect at the central position of the substrate, there are some substrates in which the vicinity of the central position is perforated, and in any case, in the prior art, it is possible to always obtain stable detection accuracy against the variety of substrate shapes. It was difficult.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, to detect the presence or absence of a substrate with high accuracy by quickly adapting to various shapes of the substrate, and as a result, to carry the component efficiently for component mounting work. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic circuit board carrying device which reduces the waiting time and improves the work efficiency and is inexpensive in the configuration.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises at least a standby station and a mounting station located downstream thereof, as set forth in claim 1, and the standby station is the standby station. In an electronic circuit board transfer device in which electronic circuit parts are mounted on a board transferred from, the presence of a board part on a predetermined longitudinal direction of the board in the standby station and the mounting station is detected. Counting means for counting the number of times are arranged respectively, and it is configured to confirm that the substrate has passed between them by coincidence of the count values of both counting means.

[0008]

Describing with reference to FIG. 5, the number of substrate projecting portions on the vertical line for conveying the substrate indicated by the alternate long and short dash line is counted. By counting, the shape of the substrate can be specified. Therefore, if the count value of the standby station on the upstream side and the count value of the mounting station on the downstream side match, it can be surely detected that the specified board has passed between them, and thus the absence of the board can be immediately confirmed. Since it can be quickly replenished, the waiting time of the work at the mounting station is reduced and the parts can be efficiently mounted.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view schematically showing an electronic circuit board carrying device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 indicates a first belt conveyor, and reference numeral M1 indicates a first motor for driving it. The belt conveyor 10 and the motor M1 constitute a standby station (referred to as a "buffer" in the embodiment) that receives a substrate 12 from a substrate supply station (not shown) of the same type on the upstream side and stands by. Further, on the downstream side of the second belt conveyor 14 and the second motor M2
The substrate 1 transported here is connected to a mounting station (referred to as “component mounting portion” in the embodiment) configured by
Required components are mounted on the chip 2 via a chip mounter section (not shown in FIG. 1), and are transported to a further downstream station (not shown). The shape of the substrate 12 is as shown in FIG.

Here, as shown in the drawing, light reflecting sensors S1, S2 and S3 are arranged in the buffer and the component mounting portion at positions shown in the drawing in the transport direction. That is, the sensor S1 is arranged near the downstream end of the buffer, the sensor S2 is arranged near the front end of the board at the component mounting position in the component mounting portion, and the first sensor S1 is arranged near the upstream end of the buffer.
A distance D greater than the length of the substrate to be transported in the transport direction
A third sensor S3 is arranged with a gap. Incidentally, these sensors are arranged in a lateral position so that they can be detected at the position indicated by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control device which receives the outputs of these sensors and controls the operation of the device. In the figure, the outputs of the sensors S1, S2, S3 are sent to a processing circuit 20, where an H level signal is generated and sent to the CPU 22 in the next stage every time the sensor receives the reflected light at the substrate protrusion portion. As shown in FIG. 5, the CPU 22 counts the number of times the H level signal is output, sends ON / OFF signals to the motors M1 and M2, and drives the motors M1 and M2. ROM2
4 stores the program shown in FIG. 3, and executes the program with the RAM 26. When the sensor S2 detects the arrival of the board, the chip mounter unit 30 is driven via the drive circuit 28 to instruct the mounting of the component, and the mounting completion is detected by the end of the component mounting program.

Next, the operation of this apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in S10, it is confirmed whether or not the light is received by the sensor S3, that is, whether the substrate has arrived at the upstream end of the buffer from the upstream substrate supply station. As will be described later, at this time, the motor M1 is on (rotating) in S42. When the arrival is confirmed, the process proceeds to S12, in which the substrate is being transferred onto the buffer, so the delivery of the substrate supply station on the upstream side is stopped, and then at S14, the sensor S3 H
Count level output. In the case of the embodiment, from the shape as shown in FIG. 5, the count value is "2" when it is conveyed in the direction of the arrow.
Becomes

Subsequently, in S16, the light reception of the sensor S1 is confirmed,
That is, it is confirmed whether or not the substrate reaches the downstream end of the buffer, and if it is confirmed, the process proceeds to S18 and the sensor S3 count value is stored in the RAM 26.
Stored in memory 1 as memory 1. That is, since the sensors S1 and S3 are separated by the distance D, the fact that the substrate has reached the sensor S1 placement position means that the substrate has completely passed the sensor S3 placement position, in other words, the number of substrate protrusion portions is counted. Since it means that it is possible to specify one substrate through the shape after the above, the count value is stored at this point.

Then, in S20, the sensor S
The output value of 1 is counted, and it is determined in S22 whether the counted value matches the memory 1 (sensor S3 counted value). When the match is confirmed in S22, it can be confirmed that the board of the specified shape has completely passed through the buffer and is being transferred to the component mounting unit in the next stage. Therefore, in S24, the board is sent to the empty buffer. At the same time as permitting, the motor M1 is stopped in S26 to interrupt the transportation to the component mounting portion. Next, in S28, after waiting for arrival at the sensor S2 arrangement position, the process proceeds to S30, where the sensor S1 count value is stored in the RAM 26 as the memory 2. Next, proceeding to S32, the motor M2 is stopped, feeding to the downstream is stopped, and proceeding to S33, mounting of components is started.

Then, in S34, after the completion of the component mounting program is confirmed, the process proceeds to S36, the motor M2 is restarted there, the process proceeds to S38, the sensor S2 output is counted, and the counted value and the memory are stored in S40. 2 (Sensor S
(1 count value) is determined whether or not they match. If they match, it means that the substrate of the specified shape has completely passed the sensor S2 arrangement position, that is, the substrate has been sent out of the row, so the process proceeds to S42 and the motor M1 is restarted, and S10
Then, the substrate is carried from the buffer to the component mounting portion, and the above steps are repeated thereafter.

In this embodiment, three sensors are arranged in the carrying direction as described above, one substrate is specified through the shape by counting the number of protruding portions of the substrate, and the counted values are compared with each other to specify. Since the board is conveyed while confirming the passage of the board of the specified shape, when there is no board at each station, the board can be immediately replenished from the upstream side, and as a result, the parts are sequentially mounted in the parts mounting section. This makes it possible to reduce the waiting time for mounting work, and efficiently convey the substrate to mount components.

[0019]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, at least the waiting station and the mounting station located downstream thereof are provided,
In an electronic circuit board transfer device in which electronic circuit components are mounted on the board transferred from the standby station at the mounting station, the standby station and the mounting station are provided with Counting means for detecting the existence and counting the number of times are respectively arranged, and it is configured to confirm that the substrate has passed between them by the coincidence of the count values of both counting means, so that even various types of boards can be counted. When one substrate can be specified from the numerical value through the shape and the movement of the one substrate having the specified shape can be reliably detected from the count value, and the substrate is absent at any station. Can be replenished immediately and the board can be transported efficiently, resulting in a shorter waiting time for component mounting work. It is possible to improve the work efficiency.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the counting means is arranged near the upstream end and near the downstream end of the waiting station, respectively, and it is confirmed that the substrate has passed through the waiting station when the count values of both counting means match. Because it was configured as
For the reasons described above, it is possible to reliably and quickly detect that the substrate has moved from the standby station to the mounting station, and it is possible to immediately replenish the standby station with the substrate, resulting in an improvement in component mounting work efficiency. it can.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the counting means is arranged at a distance larger than the length of the substrate in the carrying direction, the shape of the substrate can be reliably specified, and as a result, the substrate It is possible to reliably detect the movement and improve the component mounting work efficiency.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an electronic circuit board transfer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory block diagram showing details of a control device of the device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an electronic circuit board transfer device in the prior art.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory plan view showing an example of the shape of a substrate conveyed by the present apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 First belt conveyor 12 substrates 14 Second belt conveyor 20 Processing circuit 22 CPU 24 ROM 26 RAM 28 Drive circuit 30 Chip mounter M1 first motor M2 second motor S1 First sensor S2 second sensor S3 Third sensor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An electronic circuit board transporting device comprising at least a standby station and a mounting station located downstream thereof, wherein electronic circuit components are mounted on a substrate transported from the standby station at the mounting station, the standby. Each of the station and the mounting station is provided with a counting unit that detects the presence of a substrate portion on a predetermined vertical direction of the substrate in the transfer direction and counts the number of times, and the substrate is placed between the two when the count values of both counting units match. An electronic circuit board transfer device characterized in that it is configured to confirm that it has passed. 2. The counting means is arranged near the upstream end and near the downstream end of the waiting station, respectively, and it is confirmed that the substrate has passed through the waiting station by coincidence of the count values of both counting means. The electronic circuit board transfer device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The electronic circuit board carrying device according to claim 2, wherein the counting means is arranged at a distance larger than a length of the board in the carrying direction.