CN113784538B

CN113784538B - Chip mounter, tray replacing device and tray replacing method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN113784538B
Application number: CN202110218052.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张囝; 杨嘉琪; 邵国富; 于宗靖
Original assignee: Beijing Jingdong Qianshi Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Jingdong Qianshi Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-02-26
Filing date: 2021-02-26
Publication date: 2023-12-05
Anticipated expiration: 2041-02-26
Also published as: CN113784538A

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a chip mounter, a tray replacing device and a tray replacing method thereof. The tray replacing device includes: a material rack (2) comprising a plurality of material bins (21) for accommodating material trays (3) and a locking mechanism for locking each material tray (3) in the corresponding material bin (21) respectively; a plurality of feeders (1) located on one side of the material rack (2), each feeder (1) being configured to receive a material strip (4) led out from a material tray (3) in a corresponding bin (21) on the material rack (2) and to perform a feeding operation; and a controller (5) in signal connection with the locking mechanism and configured to unlock the locking mechanism when a tray (3) needs to be replaced and to unlock a bin (21) in which the tray (3) needs to be replaced. The embodiment of the disclosure can avoid the wrong replacement of the material tray as much as possible.

Description

Chip mounter, tray replacing device and tray replacing method thereof

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to the technical field of surface assembly, in particular to a chip mounter, a charging tray replacing device and a charging tray replacing method thereof.

Background

SMT (surface mount technology, surface Mounted Technology) patches are short for serial process flows that are processed on a PCB (printed circuit board ) basis. In the related art, a patch (i.e., a surface mount device, surface Mount Devices, abbreviated as SMD) applied by SMT is packaged inside a rolled tape, and wound in a tray of a certain specification. In the SMT patch process, the trays need to be replaced in order to continuously replenish the material. When the tray is replaced, an operator scans the feeder and the tray to be replaced by using the code scanning gun in sequence to confirm the corresponding relation between the feeder and the tray, after the system confirms the correctness, the tray is manually received and replaced, and is freely placed on a material rack below the feeder according to a certain sequence and is fetched and placed according to the requirement.

Disclosure of Invention

In one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a tray replacing apparatus including:

the material rack comprises a plurality of material bins for accommodating material trays and a locking mechanism for locking each material tray in the corresponding material bin respectively;

the feeders are positioned on one side of the material rack, each feeder is configured to receive a material belt led out by a material tray in a corresponding material bin on the material rack and execute feeding operation; and

and the controller is in signal connection with the locking mechanism and is configured to unlock the locking mechanism from a bin needing to be replaced when the tray needs to be replaced.

In some embodiments, the locking mechanism includes a plurality of gate locking structures in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of bins, each gate locking structure including a sliding gate slidably disposed on an opening of a corresponding bin, the opening or closing of the bin being achieved by sliding of the sliding gate, and a latch hook configured to place the sliding gate in a position to close the bin in a locked position.

In some embodiments, the tray accommodating space in the bin is cylindrical, a circular arc-shaped slideway is arranged at the periphery of the tray accommodating space, and a part of the sliding gate is slidably arranged in the circular arc-shaped slideway.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises: the first spring is positioned in the circular arc-shaped slideway, two ends of the first spring are respectively connected with the storage bin and the sliding gate, and the first spring is configured to enable the sliding gate to slide to a position for enabling the storage bin to be opened when the locking hook is positioned at the unlocking position.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises:

the opening sensor is arranged in the material rack, is in signal connection with the controller and is configured to detect the position of the sliding gate so that the controller can determine whether the sliding gate reaches the position for opening the material bin.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises:

an eccentric member contacting the latch hook; and

and the brake opening motor is in signal connection with the controller and is provided with a power output end connected with the eccentric component and is configured to drive the eccentric component to enable the lock hook to be separated from the locking position.

In some embodiments, one end of the latch hook is hinged with the bin, the other end of the latch hook is provided with a groove, the eccentric part is movably inserted in the groove, and the brake opening motor drives the eccentric part to eccentrically rotate so as to enable the latch hook to swing from the locking position to the unlocking position.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises:

the poking piece is fixedly connected with the lock hook and extends out from an opening on the outer wall of the storage bin, and is configured to drive the lock hook to swing from the locking position to the unlocking position when the poking piece is poked,

when the lock hook is in the locking position, a gap is formed between the eccentric part and the groove wall of the groove adjacent to one side of the sliding gate.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises:

the closing sensor is arranged in the material rack, is in signal connection with the controller and is configured to detect the position of the lock hook or the position of the poking piece so that the controller can determine whether the lock hook is positioned at the locking position.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises:

and a second spring connected with the lock hook and configured to enable the lock hook to tend to move towards the locking position.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises:

and the brake opening motor sensor is arranged in the material rack, is in signal connection with the controller and is configured to detect the position of the eccentric part so that the controller can determine whether the lock hook is in an unlocking state.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises: the opening sensor, the closing sensor and the opening motor sensor are all arranged in the material rack and are all connected with the controller in a signal manner; the opening sensor is configured to detect the position of the sliding gate so that the controller determines whether the sliding gate reaches a position for opening the bin, the closing sensor is configured to detect the position of the lock hook or the position of the plectrum so that the controller determines whether the lock hook is at the locking position, and the opening motor sensor is configured to detect the position of the eccentric component; the bin has a cable interface electrically connected with the opening motor, the opening sensor, the closing sensor, and the opening motor sensor, configured to connect a quick-connect cable.

In some embodiments, the gate locking structure further comprises an operating handle connected to the sliding gate configured to define a maximum sliding travel of the sliding gate in a direction to the bin opening and in a direction to the bin closing.

In some embodiments, the controller is configured to cause the locking mechanism to lock a bin that does not require a tray change during both the feeding operation performed by the plurality of feeders and during a tray change.

In some embodiments, the tray exchange apparatus further comprises:

the code scanning mechanism is in signal connection with the controller and is configured to scan codes for a feeder corresponding to a bin requiring the replacement of the tray and a new tray respectively, so that the controller can unlock the bin requiring the replacement of the tray when judging that the new tray is available for replacement.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a chip mounter including: the tray replacing device is characterized by comprising a tray replacing device.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a tray replacing method based on the foregoing tray replacing device, including:

when the tray needs to be replaced, the code scanning operation is respectively carried out on the feeder and the new tray corresponding to the bin of the tray needs to be replaced;

and determining whether the new tray and the feeder have binding relation according to the information obtained by the code scanning operation, and if so, unlocking the storage bin needing to be replaced by the locking mechanism so as to perform tray replacement operation.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

The disclosure may be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

fig. 1A is a schematic diagram of a material rack and a feeder of a chip mounter in a normal operation state in the related art;

fig. 1B is a schematic diagram of a material rack and a feeder of a chip mounter in a working state of material replacement in the related art;

fig. 1C is a schematic diagram of a work stack and feeder in a normal operating state according to some embodiments of the chip mounter of the present disclosure;

fig. 1D is a schematic view of a state of a rack and feeder at a tray change according to some embodiments of the chip mounter of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the exterior structure of a cartridge in some embodiments of a tray exchange device according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the internal structure of a cartridge in some embodiments of a tray exchange device according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of an assembled configuration of a bin and a partial locking mechanism in some embodiments of a tray exchange device according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a latch hook and associated structure in some embodiments of a tray exchange device according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an open-gate motor and related structures in some embodiments of a tray exchange apparatus according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the portion corresponding to circle A in FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the portion corresponding to circle B in FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of signal communication in some embodiments of a tray exchange apparatus according to the present disclosure;

fig. 10 is a flow diagram of some embodiments of a tray exchange method according to the present disclosure.

It should be understood that the dimensions of the various elements shown in the figures are not drawn to actual scale. Further, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar members.

Detailed Description

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The description of the exemplary embodiments is merely illustrative, and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses. The present disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. These embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. It should be noted that: the relative arrangement of parts and steps, the composition of materials, numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these embodiments should be construed as exemplary only and not limiting unless otherwise specifically stated.

The terms "first," "second," and the like, as used in this disclosure, do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another. The word "comprising" or "comprises" and the like means that elements preceding the word encompass the elements recited after the word, and not exclude the possibility of also encompassing other elements. "upper", "lower", "left", "right", etc. are used merely to indicate relative positional relationships, which may also be changed when the absolute position of the object to be described is changed.

In this disclosure, when a particular device is described as being located between a first device and a second device, there may or may not be an intervening device between the particular device and either the first device or the second device. When it is described that a particular device is connected to other devices, the particular device may be directly connected to the other devices without intervening devices, or may be directly connected to the other devices without intervening devices.

All terms (including technical or scientific terms) used in this disclosure have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs, unless specifically defined otherwise. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but are intended to be part of the specification where appropriate.

Referring to fig. 1A and 1B, a material rack 2 of a chip mounter in the related art is located under a feeder 1. The strips 4 are wound around the trays 3, and the trays 3 are placed in respective pockets 21 in the racks 2. The corresponding relationship between the feeder 1 and the tray 3 can be referred to as (1) - (5) in fig. 1A. However, when the trays corresponding to the reference numerals (1) and (2) are replaced, the tray body of the reference numeral (1) corresponds to the reference numeral (1) feeder, and the tray body of the reference numeral (2) corresponds to the reference numeral (2) feeder, but in practice, the tray body of the reference numeral (1) is loaded into the bin of the reference numeral (2) feeder corresponding to the reference numeral (2), and the tray body of the reference numeral (2) is loaded into the bin of the reference numeral (1) feeder, thereby causing production accidents. Because the chip mounter production line is usually continuously stopped, a large number of defective products can be generated, and thus, larger cost loss is caused.

Through research and analysis of the cause of the error phenomenon by the inventor, the main cause is found as follows: firstly, when the same working content is continuously repeated by manual operation, a phenomenon of number slipping of a certain probability exists, so that forgetting or confusing is caused; secondly, the material belt trays are manufactured according to a certain standard, the size and the shape are basically consistent, and particularly the material belt trays are not easy to distinguish under the condition that the size and the color characteristics of the small patches are not greatly different; thirdly, the height difference between the feeder and the material tray is about half a meter, the whole material belt is softer and thinner, shake and swing are easy to occur during feeding, and the resolution of operators is also affected; fourth, although the replacement operation is confirmed by the code scanning in the operation flow, there are cases where the wrong tray is replaced because the tray is freely placed on the rack or the code scanning is correct.

In view of this, referring to fig. 1C-10, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a chip mounter, a tray replacing device and a tray replacing method thereof, which can avoid the wrong replacement of the tray as much as possible.

Referring to fig. 1C, 1D, and 9, in some embodiments, the placement machine includes a tray changing device. The tray replacing device includes: a material rack 2, a plurality of feeders 1 and a controller 5. The magazine 2 comprises a plurality of pockets 21 for receiving trays 3 and a locking mechanism for locking each tray 3 in a corresponding pocket 21, respectively. A plurality of feeders 1 are located on one side of the rack 2, each feeder 1 being configured to receive a strip 4 drawn from a tray 3 in a corresponding magazine 21 on the rack 2 and to perform a feeding operation. The controller 5 is in signal connection with the locking mechanism and is configured to unlock the locking mechanism when a tray 3 needs to be replaced, the magazine 21 of the tray 3 needs to be replaced.

In fig. 1C, the material strips 4 led out from the trays 3 in the respective bins 21 are led into the feeder 1. When the feeder 1 performs a feeding operation, the controller 5 may cause the locking mechanism to lock each of the bins 21 so that the trays within each of the bins 21 cannot be taken out of the bins 21. When the tray with the reference number (2) needs to be replaced, the controller 5 can enable the locking mechanism to unlock the bin corresponding to the tray with the reference number (2), and other bins keep in a locked state, so that a worker for replacing the tray can only operate the bin for replacing the tray. After replacement, the worker may lock the bin of the replaced tray by the locking mechanism, or may continue to lock the bin of the replaced tray by the controller 5.

According to the embodiment, each bin is locked through the locking mechanism on the material rack, so that each material tray located in each bin cannot be taken out, when the material tray needs to be replaced, the controller controls the locking mechanism to unlock the bin needing to be replaced, so that a person who replaces the material tray can only operate the bin to replace the material tray, the material tray cannot be replaced by mistake due to the fact that other bins are opened by mistake, and production accidents caused by the fact that the material tray is replaced by mistake are avoided.

In fig. 2, the material rack 2 can be hung on two mounting rods 7 (e.g. steel bars, etc.), and the number of the material bins included in the material rack 2 can be set according to the need. The bin can be hung on the mounting rod 7 independently or can be hung on the mounting rod 7 after being combined. Referring to fig. 1C and 1D, in some embodiments, the locking mechanism includes a plurality of gate locking structures 22 that are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of bins 21. Each gate locking structure 22 can independently open and close the corresponding bin 21. In other embodiments, the locking mechanism may be a unitary mechanism and effect the opening and closing operations of the individual bins.

In fig. 2-4, each silo 21 includes an outer wall 212. The outer wall 212 may be used to enclose a cavity that houses the tray, as well as cavities that house other components (e.g., electrical control components). The outer wall 212 may also include a flange 214 extending toward the open side to conceal the tray. The outer walls of adjacent bins can be mutually clung, or the same outer wall is shared between the adjacent bins.

Each gate locking structure 22 includes a sliding gate 221 and a shackle 222. The sliding gate 221 is slidably disposed on the opening of the corresponding bin 21, and the bin 21 is opened or closed by sliding the sliding gate 221. The latch hook 222 is configured to place the sliding gate 221 in a position to close the bin 21 in a locked position.

The sliding of the sliding gate can change the opening degree of the storage bin, and when the opening degree meets the size of the charging tray in and out, the charging tray can be replaced. And when the opening degree is smaller than the size of the feeding and discharging of the material tray, the locking of the material tray in the material bin is realized. The latch hook can be used for limiting the position of the sliding gate, and when the latch hook locks the sliding gate, the sliding gate cannot slide, so that the opening degree of the bin is kept unchanged.

Referring to fig. 2-4, in some embodiments, the tray accommodating space in the bin 21 is cylindrical, a circular arc-shaped slideway 211 is provided at the outer circumference of the tray accommodating space, and a part of the sliding gate 221 is slidably disposed in the circular arc-shaped slideway 211. The arc-shaped slideway occupies less space and is matched with the shape of the outer outline of the cylindrical tray.

The latch hook 222 is inserted into the opening 2111 of the circular arc chute 211 in fig. 4 and blocks the sliding gate 221 so that it does not continue to rotate inward. When the latch hook 222 is moved away from the opening 2111 and does not block the movable gate 221, the sliding gate 222 can continue to rotate inward to enlarge the opening of the bin.

In fig. 3 and 4, the sliding gate 221 may include a circular arc slide 2212 capable of sliding within the circular arc slide 211 and a barrier 2211 connected to the circular arc slide 2212. The radial width of the baffle 2211 is larger than the radial width of the circular arc slide 2212 in order to better limit the movement of the tray 3 in the axial direction. The baffles 2211 may be the same radial width as the flange 214.

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, in some embodiments, the gate locking structure 22 further includes: a first spring 223 is positioned in the circular arc shaped slideway 211. The first spring 223 is connected to the bin 21 and the sliding gate 221 at both ends thereof, and is configured to slide the sliding gate 221 to a position where the bin 21 is opened when the latch hook 222 is in the unlocked position. Thus, after the latch hook is unlocked, the opening of the bin 21 is automatically enlarged, and an operator can be prompted to perform quicker replacement.

Referring to fig. 3, 7 and 9, in some embodiments, the gate locking structure 22 further includes a gate opening sensor 2281 disposed within the work bin 2. The opening sensor 2281 is in signal communication with the controller 5 and is configured to detect the position of the sliding gate 221 so that the controller 5 can determine whether the sliding gate 221 has reached a position where the bin 21 is open. In this way, the controller 5 can determine whether the opening of the bin 21 is normal. The opening sensor 2281 may be located at the end of the circular arc shaped slide 211, and may be detected by the opening sensor 2281 when the sliding gate 222 slides to this position.

Referring to fig. 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9, in some embodiments, the gate locking structure 22 further includes: an eccentric member 229 and a brake release motor 224. The eccentric part 229 is in contact with the latch hook 222. An opening motor 224 is in signal connection with the controller 5 and has a power output connected with the eccentric member 229 and configured to disengage the latch hook 222 from the locked position upon driving the eccentric member 229. The controller 5 may move the shackle 222 out of the locked position by controlling the brake release motor 224.

In fig. 6 and 8, the latch hook 222 has one end hinged to the bin 21 and the other end provided with a groove 2221. The eccentric member 229 is movably inserted in the groove 2221, and the opening motor 224 rotates eccentrically by driving the eccentric member 229 to swing the latch hook 222 from the locking position to the unlocking position. The eccentric member 229 may include an insertion portion 2291 capable of being inserted into the groove 2221, the insertion portion 2291 being spaced apart from the rotation shaft of the opening motor 224 to perform eccentric rotation.

When the opening motor 224 drives the eccentric member 229 to eccentrically rotate, the projecting portion 2221 presses the inner wall of the groove 2221 while rotating with respect to the axis, so that the latch hook 222 swings to a side away from the sliding gate 221. When the latch hook 222 is separated from the locking position, the sliding gate 221 is not limited by the latch hook 222, but is unfolded by the first spring 223. The eccentric member 229 continues to rotate with the actuation of the brake release motor 224 until it rotates back to the original position. At this time, the latch hook 222 is not pushed by the eccentric part 229, but is not returned to the latched position by the restriction of the movable gate 221.

Considering that the opening motor may malfunction and thus fail to automatically unlock, referring to fig. 3-5 and 8, in some embodiments, the gate locking structure 22 further includes a paddle 225 fixedly connected to the latch hook 222. The pulling tab 225 protrudes from an opening 2121 in the outer wall 212 of the magazine 21. The catch 222 is caused to swing from the locked position to the unlocked position when the paddle 225 is actuated (e.g., by an operator's hand). In order to enable the latch hook 222 to be pushed, the eccentric part 229 at the initial position has a gap with the groove wall of the groove 2221 adjacent to the side of the sliding gate 221. In fig. 5, the paddle 225 is resting against the right side of the opening 2121 with the shackle 222 in the locked position. In fig. 6, the tab 225 is resting against the left side of the opening 2121 and the latch hook 222 is in the unlatched position.

Referring to fig. 6, 8 and 9, in some embodiments, the gate locking structure 22 further includes a closing sensor 2282 disposed within the work bin 2. The closing sensor 2282 is in signal connection with the controller 5 and is configured to detect the position of the latch hook 222 or the position of the paddle 225, so that the controller 5 determines whether the latch hook 222 is in the locked position.

To retain the shackle 222 in the locked position when it is desired to lock the sliding gate 221, referring to fig. 3, in some embodiments, the gate locking structure 22 further includes a second spring 226 coupled to the shackle 222. The second spring 226 is configured to move the latch hook 222 toward the locking position, thereby holding the latch hook 222 in the locking position. The second spring 226 may be directly connected to the latch hook 222 or may be connected to the paddle 225 so as to indirectly act on the latch hook 222. The second spring 226 may be mounted in an elongated slot provided inside the outer wall 212 in fig. 4, aligned with the opening 2111 in the circular arc shaped slide 211, such that the spring force of the second spring 226 against the latch hook 222 is directed towards the opening 2111.

Referring to fig. 6, 8 and 9, in some embodiments, the gate locking structure 22 further includes a gate opening motor sensor 2283 disposed within the work bin 2. And is in signal connection with the controller 5 and is configured to detect the position of the eccentric member 229. By detecting the position of the eccentric member 229 by the opening motor sensor 2283, the opening motor 224 can be conveniently controlled to return the eccentric member 229 to an accurate initial position after the unlocking operation is performed.

In addition, in fig. 2 and 3, the bin 21 may further have a cable interface 213 electrically connected to the opening motor 224, the opening sensor 2281, the closing sensor 2282, and the opening motor sensor 2283, configured to connect a quick cable. The cable interface 213 may be located within the opening 2123 of the outer wall 212 in fig. 4. Thus, an operator can conveniently and quickly connect the cables. The corresponding gate locking structure 22 of each silo 21 may be provided by separate cables which may be connected to the controller 5 or which may be connected to the controller 5 by one cable after being strung together through a serial interface.

Referring to fig. 4, in some embodiments, the gate locking structure 22 further includes an operating handle 227 connected to the sliding gate 221. The operating handle 227 may be configured to define a maximum sliding travel of the sliding gate 221 in a direction to open the bin 21 and a direction to close the bin 21. The operator can operate the operating handle 227 by hand to open or close the bin, and the cooperation of the operating handle 227 itself with the circular arc-shaped slideway 211 can limit the maximum sliding travel in both the opening and closing directions.

After the tray is replaced, the operator may pull the operating handle 227 by hand to pull the sliding gate 221 to a position blocking the tray, and at this time, the latch hook 222 may enter the opening 2111 under the pushing of the second spring 226 and block the sliding gate 221, thereby maintaining the locked state. At this time, the pulling piece 225 is also pushed by the second spring 226 to press the closing sensor 2282, so that the controller 5 knows that the sliding gate is normally closed, and the next operation can be performed.

Referring to fig. 9, in some embodiments, the tray replacing device further includes a code scanning mechanism 6 in signal connection with the controller 5. The code scanning mechanism 6 is configured to perform code scanning operation on the feeder 1 corresponding to the bin 21 of the tray 3 to be replaced and a new tray respectively, so that the controller 5 can unlock the locking mechanism from the bin 21 of the tray 3 to be replaced when judging that the new tray is available for replacement. Because binding relation exists among the feeder 1, the new material tray and the bin 21, the controller can determine whether the new material tray corresponds to the feeder through code scanning operation, and if so, the bin can be instructed to be unlocked according to the corresponding relation between the feeder and the bin, so that the operation of an operator is simplified. In contrast to the binding mode of the cable with the feeder and the tray, the risk of replacing wrong materials caused by misplug of the cable is avoided by the binding mode among the bin, the feeder and the tray.

Based on the foregoing embodiments of the tray replacing device, referring to fig. 10, in some embodiments, the disclosed embodiments further provide a tray replacing method based on the foregoing tray replacing device, including steps S1-S3. In step S1, when the tray 3 needs to be replaced, the feeder 1 and the new tray corresponding to the bin 21 where the tray 3 needs to be replaced are scanned. In step S2, it is determined whether a binding relationship exists between the new tray and the feeder 1 according to the information obtained in the code scanning operation, if so, step S3 is executed, otherwise, the operation is ended. In step S3, the locking mechanism is unlocked from the magazine 21 requiring replacement of the tray 3, so that the tray 3 replacement operation is performed.

Thus, various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail. In order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the present disclosure, some details known in the art are not described. How to implement the solutions disclosed herein will be fully apparent to those skilled in the art from the above description.

Although some specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail by way of example, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the above examples are for illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing embodiments may be modified and equivalents substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A tray exchange apparatus comprising:

a material rack (2) comprising a plurality of material bins (21) for accommodating material trays (3) and a locking mechanism for locking each material tray (3) in the corresponding material bin (21) respectively;

a plurality of feeders (1) located on one side of the material rack (2), each feeder (1) being configured to receive a material strip (4) led out from a material tray (3) in a corresponding bin (21) on the material rack (2) and to perform a feeding operation; and

a controller (5) in signal connection with the locking mechanism and configured to unlock the locking mechanism from a bin (21) in need of changing the tray (3) when the tray (3) is in need of changing;

wherein the locking mechanism comprises a plurality of gate locking structures (22) corresponding to the plurality of bins (21) one by one, each gate locking structure (22) comprises a sliding gate (221) and a locking hook (222), the sliding gate (221) is slidably arranged on an opening of the corresponding bin (21), the bin (21) is opened or closed by sliding of the sliding gate (221), and the locking hook (222) is configured to enable the sliding gate (221) to be in a position for enabling the bin (21) to be closed in a locking position;

the tray accommodating space in the bin (21) is cylindrical, an arc-shaped slideway (211) is arranged on the periphery of the tray accommodating space, and a part of the sliding gate (221) is slidably arranged in the arc-shaped slideway (211).

2. The tray exchange apparatus of claim 1, wherein said gate locking structure (22) further comprises: the first spring (223) is positioned in the circular arc-shaped slideway (211), two ends of the first spring are respectively connected with the storage bin (21) and the sliding gate (221), and the first spring is configured to enable the sliding gate (221) to slide to a position for enabling the storage bin (21) to be opened when the lock hook (222) is in an unlocking position.

3. The tray exchange apparatus of claim 2, wherein said gate locking structure (22) further comprises:

the opening sensor (2281) is arranged in the material rack (2) and is in signal connection with the controller (5) and is configured to detect the position of the sliding gate (221) so that the controller (5) can determine whether the sliding gate (221) reaches a position for opening the storage bin (21).

4. The tray exchange apparatus of claim 1, wherein said gate locking structure (22) further comprises:

an eccentric member (229) in contact with the latch hook (222); and

and a brake opening motor (224) which is in signal connection with the controller (5) and is provided with a power output end connected with the eccentric part (229) and is configured to drive the eccentric part (229) to separate the lock hook (222) from the locking position.

5. The tray replacing device according to claim 4, wherein one end of the latch hook (222) is hinged with the bin (21), the other end is provided with a groove (2221), the eccentric member (229) is movably inserted into the groove (2221), and the opening motor (224) is eccentrically rotated by driving the eccentric member (229) to swing the latch hook (222) from the locking position to the unlocking position.

6. The tray exchange apparatus of claim 5, wherein said gate locking structure (22) further comprises:

a poking piece (225) fixedly connected with the lock hook (222) and extending out from an opening (2121) on the outer wall (212) of the bin (21) and configured to drive the lock hook (222) to swing from the locking position to the unlocking position when the poking piece (225) is poked,

wherein, when the latch hook (222) is at the locking position, the eccentric part (229) has a clearance with a groove wall of one side of the groove (2221) adjacent to the sliding gate (221).

7. The tray exchange apparatus of claim 6, wherein said gate locking structure (22) further comprises:

the closing sensor (2282) is arranged in the material rack (2) and is in signal connection with the controller (5) and is configured to detect the position of the lock hook (222) or the position of the poking piece (225) so that the controller (5) can determine whether the lock hook (222) is in the locking position or not.

8. The tray exchange apparatus of claim 1, wherein said gate locking structure (22) further comprises:

a second spring (226), coupled to the shackle (222), is configured to bias the shackle (222) toward the locked position.

9. The tray exchange apparatus of claim 5, wherein said gate locking structure (22) further comprises:

and a brake opening motor sensor (2283) which is arranged in the material rack (2) and is connected with the controller (5) in a signal manner and is configured to detect the position of the eccentric part (229).

10. The tray exchange apparatus of claim 4, wherein said gate locking structure (22) further comprises: the opening sensor (2281), the closing sensor (2282) and the opening motor sensor (2283) are respectively arranged in the material rack (2) and are respectively connected with the controller (5) in a signal manner; -the opening sensor (2281) is configured to detect the position of the sliding gate (221) so that the controller (5) determines whether the sliding gate (221) reaches a position where the bin (21) is opened, -the closing sensor (2282) is configured to detect the position of the latch hook (222) or the position of the paddle (225) so that the controller (5) determines whether the latch hook (222) is in the locked position, -the opening motor sensor (2283) is configured to detect the position of the eccentric member (229); the silo (21) has a cable interface (213) electrically connected with the opening motor (224), the opening sensor (2281), the closing sensor (2282) and the opening motor sensor (2283) configured to connect a quick connect cable.

11. The tray changing device according to claim 1, wherein the gate locking structure (22) further comprises an operating handle (227) connected to the sliding gate (221) configured to define a maximum sliding travel of the sliding gate (221) in a direction opening to the bin (21) and in a direction closing to the bin (21).

12. The tray changing device according to claim 1, wherein the controller (5) is configured to cause the locking mechanism to lock the bin (21) that does not require a tray (3) change during both the feeding operation performed by the plurality of feeders (1) and during the tray (3) change.

13. The tray replacing device according to any one of claims 1 to 12, further comprising:

the code scanning mechanism (6) is in signal connection with the controller (5) and is configured to scan codes on a feeder (1) and a new tray corresponding to a bin (21) needing to be replaced with the tray (3) respectively, so that the controller (5) can unlock the bin (21) needing to be replaced with the tray (3) when judging that the new tray is available for replacement.

14. A chip mounter, comprising:

the tray replacing device according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

15. A tray replacing method based on the tray replacing device of claim 13, comprising:

when the tray (3) needs to be replaced, the feeder (1) corresponding to the bin (21) of the tray (3) needs to be replaced and the new tray are subjected to code scanning operation respectively;

and determining whether the new tray and the feeder (1) have binding relation according to the information obtained by the code scanning operation, and if so, unlocking the bin (21) needing to be replaced with the tray (3) by the locking mechanism so as to perform the tray (3) replacement operation.