JPH02167635A - Automatic assembly device and parts feeding method therefore - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a floor area and to stabilize work tact by making a part assembly head and part feeding unit rotatably around a co-axial shaft independently and providing a table placing the body to be assembled in the middle of the assembly head and feeding unit. CONSTITUTION:A dividing base 12 is rotated and stopped at constant cycle and during its stoppage a part assembly head 11 divided by a part feeding station 1 or 2 and the assembly head 11 divided by an assembly station 3 are worked by moving vertically. The feeding station 1 is used at ordinary cycle, a feeding unit 21 selected next is arranged by approaching, the feeding unit 21 selected prior to the dividing rotation completion of the dividing base 12 is made access to the feeding station 1 and simultaneously with the dividing base 12 being stopped the suction or assembly of the succeeding part is started. In case of the feeding unit 21 being located at the position apart, the parts are simultaneously fed from two feeding units 21 at the work cycle of one before and in the succeeding work cycle the feeding work is stopped and the feeding unit 21 is made access to the feeding station 1 while until the assembly head 11 is vertically moved at the succeeding work cycle.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an automatic assembly device suitable for example as an automatic electronic component assembly device and a component supply method carried out in the device, in particular a random access system component supply method. The present invention relates to an automatic assembly device and a parts supply method therefor.

[Conventional Technique #liI] Automatic assembly equipment such as electronic component automatic assembly equipment that assembles electronic components onto printed circuit boards has a plurality of component assembly heads arranged at a constant pitch on the same circumference. There is a known type of machine that performs extraction rotation and performs tasks such as supply (adsorption), positioning (centering), inspection, and assembly of parts at the same time in parallel at the indexing position.

Figure 6 shows a first conventional example of this type of automatic assembly device (electronic component automatic assembly device), in which figure (a) is a plan view and figure (b) is a top view.
) is a right side view.

This electronic component automatic assembly device adopts a component supply method called a random access method, and has a plurality of component assembly rads 11 in the upper center of the device body 100, which can be indexed and rotated. An indexing table 12 is provided, and a transport table 23 that places a component supply unit 21 on the rear of the upper surface of the apparatus main body 100 and moves left and right, and a printed circuit board #1 on the front of the upper surface of the apparatus main body 100. The structure includes an X-Y table 31 that can be placed and moved from side to side and back and forth.

On the outer peripheral surface of the indexing table 12, there are a plurality of component assembly heads arranged at a predetermined pitch on the same circumference! ■ is attached,
At the rear indexing position of the indexing table 12, a component supply station 1 is provided which picks up and takes out electronic components from a component supply unit 21. On the other hand, a plurality of component supply units 21 are attached to the transport table 23 in parallel to each other within the same horizontal plane. The transport table 23 is arranged in the left-right direction (
21 in the direction of arrow X) and place the required component supply unit) 21 at the supply position.

When the indexing table 12 indexes and rotates to begin parts assembly, the door 11 is indexed to the parts supply stage.

This component assembly head 11 is driven by a drive mechanism (not shown) in the axial direction (that is, the downward direction toward the one component supply unit 21), and adsorbs electronic components held in the component supply unit 21. and rise.

A one-component assembly stage 3 is provided at an indexing position in front of the indexing table 12, and a ladder 11 descends to assemble one component to mount an electronic component on a printed circuit board. Furthermore, work stations such as inspection 9 positioning (centering) of electronic components are provided at any indexing position from the component supply station 1 of the indexing table 12 to the component assembly stage W3. Performs work such as inspecting sucked electronic components for defects, correcting posture, and centering them.

The X-Y table 31 has a printed circuit board placed on it, and
It moves under N Cn control in directions (left-right and front-back directions) and positions a predetermined electronic component mounting point formed on the printed circuit board at the mounting position of the component mounting station 3.

On the other hand, the component assembly point t1 indexed to the component assembly station 3 is driven in the axial direction (that is, in the downward direction toward the electronic component assembly point) by a drive mechanism (not shown), and is suctioned. Attach the electronic component that was previously installed to the same electronic component attachment point.

FIG. 7(a) is a plan view showing a second conventional example, and FIG. 7(b) is a right side view. The automatic assembly apparatus in this second conventional example employs a parts supply system called a sequence system, and is different from the automatic assembly apparatus in the first conventional example in the following points.

A large number of component supply units 21 are arranged radially in a fixed state below the index position of the component assembly head 11 between certain ranges, and components are assembled in correspondence with each component supply unit 21. A one-component assembled head II with a configuration in which a vertical drive mechanism (not shown) for the head 11 is installed.
When the component supply unit 21 is transported to a predetermined supply position of the component supply unit 21 by indexing rotation, the electronic component held in the component supply unit 21 is sucked and raised to carry out the component supply work.

Other operations (inspection, centering, etc.) and mounting operations are the same as those in the first conventional example, so explanations will be omitted.

[Problems to be Solved] In the first conventional electronic component automatic assembly device that employs the random access method as described above, the indexing table 12 to which the one-component assembly head 11 is attached is located at the upper center of the device body 100.
On the other hand, since the transport tables 23 to which the component supply units 21 are attached are disposed at the rear of the upper surface of the apparatus main body 100, each of which is spread out in a plane, a large space is required.

Furthermore, since only one of the many indexing positions of the component assembly head 11 is used as the component supply station l, the indexing position may vary depending on the component assembly closure and the arrangement of the component supply unit 21 that holds the component. For example, it may be necessary to move the transport table 23 significantly each time the table 12 indexes and rotates. When parts must be supplied from the component supply unit 21 at the other end of the conveyance table 23 to the component assembly ladder 11 that is indexed first after the components have been supplied from the supply unit 21. falls under this category.

Of course, when this electronic component automatic assembly apparatus is used as a dedicated machine for assembling electronic components onto a specific printed circuit board, the component supply units 21 should be arranged so that the transfer table 23 does not move significantly. However, when the component supply unit 23 is used to assemble several types of printed circuit boards without changing its arrangement, the transport table 23 inevitably moves significantly.

In this way, when the transport table 23 moves greatly and places the required component supply unit (21) at the supply position in the component supply station l, even if the indexing table 12 is indexed, the transport table 23 Until the movement is completed, all the component assembling heads 11 must remain at the indexed position, resulting in a problem that the work tact of the entire apparatus is delayed.

Firstly, in the second conventional automatic assembly device which adopts the above-mentioned sequence method, a large number of component supply stations 1 are provided corresponding to the component supply units (21), and as the index rotates, the component assembly rad 11 is moved. Since the parts supply work is performed when the parts are transported to the supply position of the predetermined parts supply unit 21, there is no problem of delay in work tact as in the first conventional example, but there are many parts corresponding to one parts supply unit 21. Since it is necessary to install a vertical drive mechanism for the component assembly rod 11, the number of vertical drive mechanisms in the component supply station 1 increases, and the control thereof becomes complicated.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is compact with a small floor space, and can prevent delays in work tact even when the transport distance of the parts supply unit is long. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an automatic assembly device that can maintain a stable work tact, have a small number of vertical drive mechanisms in a component supply station, and can be easily controlled, and a component supply method therefor.

[Means for solving the problem] In order to achieve the above object, the automatic assembly device of the present invention has the following features:
A plurality of component assembly heads and a plurality of component supply units are arranged on the right, and a predetermined component assembly head and a component supply unit that supplies components to the component assembly head face each other at a component supply station. In an automatic Ml stand that supplies parts by randomly accessing the parts supply unit, the parts assembly head and the parts supply unit can rotate independently of each other around the axis of the same window. , an X-Y table on which a to-be-assembled object on which parts are to be assembled is placed between the head with parts Ml and the parts supply unit, avoiding the parts supply station. The mounting pitch of the head and the mounting pitch of the component supply unit are set to be the same interval or so that either one is an integral multiple of the other.

Further, the component supply method of the present invention includes a plurality of component assembly heads and a plurality of component supply units, and supplies components to a predetermined component assembly head and the component assembly head at one component supply station. In an automatic assembly apparatus that supplies parts by randomly accessing the parts supply units, the parts supply station is configured such that the parts supply units facing each other face each other. There are multiple parts supply stations, and the parts supplying stations at the plurality of places simultaneously or individually perform parts supply work from the parts supply unit to the said parts assembly head, and the parts supplying work at the plurality of parts at the same time at the plurality of parts supply stations. When this is done, a method is adopted in which only the parts supply operation is stopped a corresponding number of times in the subsequent work cycle.

[Examples] Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 and FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) are conceptual diagrams for explaining an embodiment of the automatic assembly device of the present invention.
The figure is a perspective view showing the external appearance when applied to an electronic component automatic assembly device, FIG. 2(a) is a plan view of the device, and FIG. 2(b)
is also a right side view.

In these drawings, reference numeral 12 denotes an indexing table provided at the upper center of the apparatus main body 100, and a plurality of component assembly rads 11 are attached at a predetermined pitch on the same circumference of the outer peripheral surface. 22 is a rotary conveyance table;
It is provided below the indexing table 12, and the same number of component supply units 21 as the component assembly heads 11 are attached to the outer peripheral surface so as to face the component assembly heads 11. 3
Reference numeral 1 denotes an X-Y table provided at the front of the upper surface of the apparatus main body 100, which is NC-controlled and movable in the X and Y directions.

The indexing table 12 is formed in a cylindrical shape, and is indexed and rotated around a central axis by a drive mechanism (not shown) to index the one-component assembly head 11 in a constant cycle, and also for component assembly. In this embodiment, the RAD 11 has a structure in which a suction nozzle ttb is attached to the tip of a vertically movable spindle lla, and an electronic component is vacuum-suctioned to the tip of the suction nozzle llb.

As the above-mentioned indexing table 12 and component assembly ladder 11, known ones can be used.

The rotary conveyance table 22 is randomly indexed and rotated around an axis in the same window as the one-output table 12 by a drive mechanism (not shown), thereby making the component supply unit 21 randomly accessible. Each component supply unit 2 attached to this rotary conveyance table 22
In this embodiment, one component supply unit 21 is loaded with different types of electronic components.

Magazine tape 21a for storing electronic components wound on a reel
The electronic components are supplied to the upper end while being sequentially pulled upward.

In this embodiment, the x-y table 31 places a printed circuit board 32 as an object to be assembled, moves in the X and Y directions under NC control in the same way as the conventional example described above, and transfers the electronics of the printed circuit board. The component attachment point is positioned below the component assembly ladder 11 at the component assembly station 3.

In addition, the indexing table 12 is provided with a parts supply station 1 to be described later.
．． At the index position between 2 and parts assembly station 3, there is a work station for positioning and inspecting electronic parts, as in the conventional technology, and parts are assembled by suction to 7 and 11 in a tact manner. Work such as defect inspection, posture correction, and centering of electronic components that have been removed is now underway.

The parts supply station 1.2 in this embodiment is
They are provided at two rear index positions outside the movement range of the Y table 31. Each component supply station 1.2 is provided with a vertical drive mechanism (not shown) that engages with the spindle lla of the component assembly head 11 to drive it up and down. These vertical drive mechanisms are each independently controlled, and either one or both of them operate at the same time.

The component assembly rod 11 indexed to a position within the component supply station 1 or z receives the driving force from the vertical drive mechanism and moves downward toward the component supply unit (21), where it is attached to the suction nozzle llb. After adsorbing electronic components to the tip, it rises and returns to its original position. On the other hand, the rotary transfer table 2z is randomly accessed in order to place the component supply unit 21 loaded with the electronic components to be supplied to the component assembly ladder 11 in the supply position of the component supply station 1 or 2 in advance. Index and rotate.

The component assembly head 11 that has picked up the electronic components at the component supply station 1 or 2 inspects the components for defects at a positioning station and an inspection station provided at arbitrary index positions up to the component assembly station 3. After performing work such as centering and inspection of the suction position, the parts are transported to the parts assembly station 3.

The component assembly station 3 is provided with a vertical drive mechanism (not shown) similar to the component supply station 1.2 that engages with the spindle lla of the one-component assembly head 11 to drive it up and down. The electronic parts are assembled onto the printed circuit board 3 by lowering the ladder 11 toward the x-Y table 31 and assembling the parts transported to the indexed position in the same station 3.
2 and then raises the component assembly head 11 using a known method that releases the suction state of the electronic component immediately before assembling the electronic component to the mounting point of the printed circuit board 32. It has a mechanism (not shown).

In addition, the upper and lower parts provided at the parts supply station 1.2 and the parts assembly station 3 mentioned above! ! ! The I-mechanism is well known together with the one-component assembly head 11, and has already been disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 106694/1983, so it will not be described in detail here.

Next, an embodiment of the parts supply method of the present invention carried out in the above-mentioned automatic assembly apparatus (7! is the sub-component automatic assembly apparatus 'r1) will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

3(a) and 3(b) are operation time charts of each part of the electronic component automatic assembly apparatus of this embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a layout diagram of the component supply unit 21.

During the stopping time t2 of 12 parts supply stage 1
Component assembly head 11 indexed to engine l and/or 2
The parts assembling head 11 indexed to the parts assembling station 3 is driven up and down for picking up or assembling parts, and at the same time is positioned at other work stations.
Inspection and other work will be carried out.

Then, in the first cycle, at the same time as the start of the index rotation time tl of the indexing table 12, the transport table 22 also starts rotating, and the component supply unit 21 selected in the first
A supply position in the component supply station 1 and/or 2 is randomly accessed and positioned before the indexing rotation of the first indexing table 12 is completed (tl).

Here, in a normal work cycle, only component supply station l is used, and the component supply unit currently indexed to component supply station 1 and the component supply unit to be selected next are placed sufficiently close to each other. As shown in FIG. 3(a), the next selected component supply method 21 is transferred to the component supply station 1 at time 171, which is before the end of the indexing rotation of the indexing table 12. Since the indexing table 12 is indexed and stopped, the component assembly unit 11 can be lowered to pick up or assemble the next component, or start other operations. Of course, the indexing time of the transport table 22 is 1. is not constant, but varies depending on the rotation angle used to access the primary component supply unit (21).

For some reason, the parts supplying candy unit 21 for the next electronic component to be supplied is so far away from the parts supply station 1.2 that it cannot be accessed during the indexing rotation time 1+ of the indexing table 12 (for example, the 4), as shown in Figure 3(b), the work cycle T
In the work cycle Ta immediately before h, electronic components are simultaneously supplied from the two component supply units (component supply units located at the positions ◯ and ◯ in Fig. 4) 21 . and,
In the next work cycle Tb, the parts supply work is stopped,
Furthermore, in the next work cycle Tc, during the time tI between when the indexing table 12 indexes and rotates and when the ladder 11 is driven up and down for component assembly, the component supply unit 2 which has been separated by a large distance
1 can be an extended work cycle by accessing the supply location within the component supply station 1.

In the next work cycle Te, the component assembling head 11 located next to the component assembling head 11 that received the electronic components simultaneously from the supply station 2 in the previous work cycle Ta moves two pitches during this access. It moves and is indexed to the component supply station 1, and picks up the electronic components supplied by the accessed component supply unit 21.

After that, when performing the normal cycle as shown in Figure 3(a), parts supply station L is again used to supply parts. During the work cycle Tb, assembling work at the component assembling station 3 and work at other work stations are sequentially performed during one hour t2 at a constant cycle time similar to the normal case.

If it is not possible to provide an extended work cycle Tb immediately after the previous work cycle Ta, the work cycles in between can be processed simultaneously with the normal work cycle by supplying parts from the parts supply station 2. .

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and can be implemented by, for example, the following modified examples or applied examples.

l) As shown in Fig. 5(a), the parts assembly head 11
and the parts supply unit 21 on different rotational axes o1. An automatic assembly device that rotates around o2, faces each other at two index positions 4 and 5, and performs parts supply work at these index positions 4 and 5, and parts supply therefor. Method.

2) As shown in Fig. 5(b), the parts supply unit 2
1 in a straight line and move the Rad 11 to the 1-part assembly material.
An automatic parts assembly apparatus and a parts supply method therefor, in which two index positions 6.7 intersect with each other, and parts supply work is performed at these index positions 6.7.

3) Automatic assembly equipment with three or more parts supply stations and a parts supply method therefor, in this case #
Although it is possible to repeat the extended work cycle more than once to access the parts supply unit at the specified position, in practice it is preferable to do this at a maximum of three positions in order to avoid complicating the program. stomach.

4) An automatic assembly device in which either the mounting pitch of the component assembly head or the mounting pitch of the component supply unit is set to an integral multiple of the other.Normally, the work station is 6 to 6.
Since 8 parts are sufficient, 6 to 8 parts assembling heads may be installed correspondingly. On the other hand, a large number of parts supply units are required to supply many types of parts. Therefore, in general, the mounting pitch of the component assembling heads is set to an integral multiple (preferably twice) of the mounting pitch of the component supply units to increase the number of component supply units mounted.

5) An automatic assembly device that uses a component assembly head other than vacuum suction, such as a component assembly head that has a clamping claw at its tip, and a component supply method therefor.

6) An automatic assembly device that uses a parts supply unit that supplies parts other than magazine tape storage type parts, and a parts supply method therefor.

7) An automatic assembly device in which a parts supply unit is arranged in a horizontal position, and a parts supply method therefor.

8) Various automatic assembly devices for the purpose of assembling parts other than electronic parts and parts supply methods therefor.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the automatic assembly device of the present invention,
Since the component assembly head, the x-y table, and the component supply unit are stacked one on top of the other, the entire device does not have a planar expansion, making it possible to save space.

In addition, by providing component supply stations in multiple locations (preferably two or three locations), even if the transport distance of one component supply unit is long, there is no need to keep the component assembly head on standby until the access is completed, resulting in a stable Work tact can be maintained.

By randomly accessing the component supply units to two or three component supply stations, it is possible to supply electronic components to all component supply units, which reduces the number of vertical drive mechanisms and simplifies the structure. can be achieved. Furthermore, since there are fewer vertical drive mechanisms, the drive control program is also simpler.

According to the parts supply method of the present invention, even if the transport distance of the parts supply unit is long, there is no need to wait for part assembly until access is completed, so a stable work tact can be maintained. Moreover, the structure of the component supply station and the control program for the drive mechanism of the component assembly head at the station can be simplified.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1, FIG. 2(a), and (b) are conceptual diagrams for explaining an embodiment of an automatic assembly device of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an automatic assembly applied to an electronic component automatic assembly device. FIG. 2(a) is a perspective view showing the appearance of the device, and FIG. 2(a) is a plan view of the device.
b) is the same right side view, Figures 3 (a), (b) and 4
The figures are diagrams for explaining an embodiment of the parts supply method of the present invention. Figures 3 (a) and (b) are operation time charts of each part of the automatic assembly device, and Figure 4 is a diagram of the parts supply unit. The layout diagram, FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b) are diagrams each showing a modification of the parts supply method of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a first conventional example of an automatic assembly device, and FIG. Plan view, Figure 6(b)
7 is a right side view, FIG. 7 shows a second conventional example of the 111h assembly device, FIG. 7 is a right side view, FIG. 7(a) is a plan view, and FIG. 7(b) is a right side view. i. 3: 2.4, 5, 6, 7: Components supply station Components assembly station: Components assembly head 12 2 Indexing table: Components supply unit 2 Rotary transport table: X-Y table Figure 1

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) It has a plurality of component assembly heads and a plurality of component supply units, and at a component supply station, a predetermined component assembly head and a component supply unit that supplies components to the component assembly head mutually interact. In an automatic assembly device configured to face a component supply unit and supply components by randomly accessing a component supply unit, the component assembly head and the component supply unit can rotate independently of each other around a concentric axis. can be,
An automatic assembly apparatus characterized in that an X-Y table on which a to-be-assembled object on which parts are to be assembled is placed between a parts assembling head and a parts supply unit, avoiding a parts supply station. (2) The automatic assembly apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mounting pitch of the component assembly head and the mounting pitch of the component supply unit are the same, or one of them is an integral multiple of the other. (3) It has a plurality of component assembly heads and a plurality of component supply units, and at a component supply station, a predetermined component assembly head and a component supply unit that supplies components to the component assembly head are mutually connected. In an automatic assembly device configured to face a component supply unit and supply components by randomly accessing a component supply unit, there are a plurality of component supply stations in which a component assembly head and a component supply unit face each other; If the component supplying station simultaneously or individually supplies parts from the component supply unit to the component assembly head, and the multiple component supply stations simultaneously supply components to multiple locations, the subsequent A parts supply method characterized in that only the parts supply operation is stopped a corresponding number of times in a work cycle.