JPH0572845U - Adsorption hand for transporting thin workpieces - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To prevent sagging of a work during suction transfer in a suction hand for transferring a thin work such as a printed circuit board. [Structure] The suction hand 11 includes a suction surface 12 having a convex curved surface. When the thin work W is sucked onto the suction surface 12, the work W is also bent. Therefore, the thin work W is sucked and conveyed by the suction hand without sagging.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a carrying mechanism for carrying a thin work such as a printed circuit board on a processing line. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improvement of a suction band for sucking and transporting a thin work to a target position in such a transport mechanism.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 In the manufacture of printed circuit boards used in various electronic devices, substrate materials are sequentially transported along a processing line to perform processing such as cutting and punching. A substrate transfer mechanism used to transfer such a substrate generally includes an adsorption hand for adsorbing and holding a substrate material.

As the suction hand, one having a plurality of suction pads attached to its substrate suction surface has been used. However, in recent years, with the miniaturization of electronic devices, multilayer substrates have come to be used in order to miniaturize printed circuit boards. In this multilayer substrate, a large number of through holes for connecting the wirings of each layer are formed. It is difficult to adsorb a substrate that has been subjected to a large number of holes because air leakage occurs even when the adsorption pad is pressed.

For this reason, recently, as a suction mechanism of a suction band, a forced suction mechanism such as a blower is used to force a large number of holes formed on a substrate suction surface of a suction hand into a negative pressure state. The substrate is sucked.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 Here, the printed circuit board has been made thinner and thinner, and a flexible film-shaped or paper-shaped printed circuit board has been used. When such a substrate is sucked and held by a suction hand, the bending of the substrate must be taken into consideration.

That is, when the rectangular substrate material W as shown in FIG. 1 is sucked and lifted by the suction hand 1, as shown in FIG. 2, the outer peripheral portion Wa which is separated from the suction surface 2 of the suction hand 1 May hang down. If the substrate material W hangs down in this way, the hung-down part may collide with another part on the processing line and be scratched during its transportation, which is not preferable. In addition, when it hits another portion, the substrate material W itself may slightly shift from the suction surface 2 of the suction hand 1 to the front or rear or to the left and right. If such a deviation occurs, it may be difficult to position the substrate material W sucked and conveyed by the suction hand 1 at a target position in a subsequent step, which is not preferable.

Of course, in order to prevent such sagging of the substrate, the suction surface 2 of the suction hand 1 may be a surface having substantially the same size as the substrate material W to be transported. However, since the size of the substrate material W to be transported is usually various from 150 mm to 600 mm, it is not practical to set the suction surface 2 in accordance with the substrate having the maximum size among the transportation targets.

In view of this point, an object of the present invention is to realize a suction hand of a work transfer mechanism capable of suctioning and transferring a thin work without sagging.

[0009]

[Means and actions for solving the problem]

 In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, a thin work piece is adsorbed on the adsorbing surface of the adsorbing hand in a curved state and is conveyed in this state. By bending the thin work piece in this way, the out-of-plane rigidity of the work piece can be increased, and therefore it is possible to prevent the peripheral portion that is off the suction surface from hanging downward.

Here, in order to attract the work piece in a curved state, the shape of the attraction surface of the suction hand may be a convex curved surface or a concave curved surface. The curvature of the curved surface is a property that should be appropriately set in consideration of the bending characteristics of the work to be conveyed, the area of the suction surface of the suction hand, and the like.

In general, it is possible to use a suction surface having a curved surface in the conveying direction of the workpiece or in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction.

On the other hand, the work suction mechanism of the suction hand may have a structure in which many suction pads are attached to the suction surface. However, in general, holes that communicate with a forced suction mechanism such as an air blower are formed on the suction surface of the suction hand, and when suctioning a workpiece, these holes are forced to a negative pressure state, It is desirable to adopt a mechanism that adsorbs.

The work to be conveyed by the suction hand of the present invention is not limited to a film-like printed circuit board, but can be any other thin work.

[0014]

【Example】

 Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which the present invention is applied to a suction hand of a printed circuit board transport mechanism. In this figure, only the suction hand portion is shown, and other portions are omitted. Since a known function can be used as it is for the mechanism for moving the suction hand, the description thereof will be omitted here.

The suction hand 11 of this example has a hollow rectangular parallelepiped shape made of aluminum, and its lower surface 12 is a substrate suction surface. A hollow support member 14 extends on the rear end surface 13 of the suction hand 11 along the substrate transport direction (X-axis direction), and the base end side of the support member 14 is of a transport mechanism (not shown). It is connected to the side of the drive mechanism.

As can be seen from FIGS. 3 and 4, the suction surface 12 of the suction hand 11 is set to a convex curved surface having a constant curvature in a direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction. The suction surface 12 has a large number of suction holes 15 formed in a matrix.

The hollow portion 16 of the suction hand 11 communicates with the hollow portion 17 of the support member 14. The hollow portion 17 communicates with a suction port of an air blower (not shown). Therefore, when the air blower is driven, the suction hole 15 is forced into a negative pressure state.

When the film-shaped printed circuit board material W is sucked by using the suction hand 11 of the present embodiment configured as described above, as shown in FIG. 3, the substrate material W has a curved shape of the curved suction surface 12. Accordingly, it is deformed into a curved state in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction X and is adsorbed to the suction surface 12. When curved in this way, the out-of-plane rigidity of the substrate material W is increased, and a portion deviated from the suction surface 12, for example, the rear end portion Wa in the transport direction in FIG. 5 does not hang downward.

As the curved surface shape of the suction surface, various curved surface shapes can be adopted according to the type of the work. Depending on the case, a spherical shape can also be adopted.

In addition, in this embodiment, a large number of suction holes 15 are formed to suck the substrate material W. Alternatively, large suction holes may be formed in the front and rear of the suction surface 12 in the transport direction.

Further, depending on the type of the work, it is possible to use a work having a suction pad attached to the suction surface.

Furthermore, the overall shape of the suction hand is not limited to a rectangular parallelepiped shape, but various shapes can be used.

[0024]

As described above, in the present invention, the thin work piece is bent and sucked onto the suction surface of the suction hand, and is conveyed in this state. Therefore, according to the present invention, even when a thin work having a large size is sucked and conveyed, the work can be prevented from sagging.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a suction hand in a conventional work transfer mechanism.

FIG. 2 is a side view for explaining a problem when sucking and transporting a thin work by a conventional suction hand.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a suction hand of a printed circuit board carrying mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a cross-sectional view of the suction hand of FIG.

5 is a vertical sectional view of the suction hand of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 ... Suction hand 12 ... Suction surface 15 ... Suction hole

Claims (6)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A suction hand of a work transporting mechanism for sucking and transporting a thin work such as a film or a paper sheet, wherein the suction hand bends the thin work on its suction surface. An adsorption band characterized by being adapted to adsorb. 2. The adsorption band according to claim 1, wherein the adsorption surface of the adsorption band has a curved surface shape of either a convex curved surface or a concave curved surface. 3. The suction hole according to claim 2, wherein a suction hole is formed in the suction surface, and the hole is communicated with a suction port of the forced air suction mechanism through the suction band body. Adsorption band to. 4. The suction band according to claim 3, wherein the suction surface is a curved surface in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the thin workpiece. 5. The suction hand according to claim 2, wherein a plurality of suction pads are attached to the suction surface. 6. The suction hand according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the thin work piece is a film-shaped printed circuit board material.