JP4097090B2 - Barrel plating apparatus and electronic component manufacturing method using the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a barrel plating apparatus and an electronic component manufacturing method using the same.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a barrel plating apparatus as an apparatus for performing plating on small electronic components such as plating formation of external electrodes in ceramic electronic components (see Patent Document 1). The barrel plating apparatus includes a polygonal cylindrical barrel that is rotatably supported. In the barrel, a cathode terminal extends from a portion of a rotating shaft of the barrel. When performing plating, a large number of objects to be plated are placed inside the barrel, and the barrel is immersed in a plating solution. And while rotating a barrel in a plating solution, it supplies with electricity to a to-be-plated object via a cathode terminal, and it plates on the surface.

In addition, some barrel plating apparatuses have a structure in which an axis in the form of the barrel itself is inclined with respect to the rotation axis of the barrel in order to improve the stirring characteristics (see Patent Document 2). The embodiment is called an eccentric barrel.
JP-A-9-119000 JP 9-209198 A

  In barrel plating equipment, if the cathode terminal is buried in the object to be plated in the barrel, uniform rotation / rolling of the object to be plated in the barrel is hindered, and it is difficult to maintain the quality of the plating. There is a risk of becoming. For this reason, in the conventional barrel plating apparatus as exemplified in Patent Document 1, it is general that the amount of the object to be plated placed in the barrel is limited to about 1/3 of the barrel volume. . However, barrel plating is expected as a plating method that can efficiently and continuously process small parts, and it is very suitable if the amount of an object to be plated placed in the barrel at a time can be increased and the amount of plating treatment can be increased.

  The eccentric barrel disclosed in Patent Document 2 is the same as the structure disclosed in Patent Document 1 in that the cathode terminal extends from the rotating shaft of the barrel. The increase was not expected.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a barrel plating apparatus and the like that can increase the amount of plating.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a barrel plating apparatus according to the present invention includes a barrel that is rotatably supported, and an energization terminal that extends into the barrel and energizes an object to be plated. It extends from the position eccentric from the rotating shaft of the barrel.

  In this case, the energizing terminal extends from any position in the first quadrant region, the second quadrant region, the third quadrant region, or on the boundary axis thereof in a longitudinal section with the rotation axis of the barrel as a perpendicular line. It is preferable that

  More preferably, the current-carrying terminal extends from a position in the second quadrant region or a position on the boundary axis thereof in a longitudinal section with the rotation axis of the barrel as a perpendicular line.

  The barrel is penetrated by a support body that rotatably supports the barrel, and an end portion of the support body is located in the barrel and fixedly supports the energization terminal. Good.

  In that case, preferably, the barrel includes a barrel portion configured in a polygonal cylindrical shape, and a pair of side wall portions provided on both sides in the rotation axis direction of the barrel portion, and the support is A recess is formed on the inner wall of the barrel of the side wall that penetrates at least one of the side walls, and the end of the support is accommodated in the recess. The outer surface of the end of the support that faces the inside of the barrel is positioned so as not to protrude from the recess to the inside of the barrel, and the outer peripheral surface of the end of the support and the inner peripheral surface of the recess Both are formed in an annular shape.

  The present invention that achieves the above object further provides a method of manufacturing an electronic component.

  The method for manufacturing an electronic component of the present invention includes plating an electronic component as an object to be plated using the barrel plating apparatus according to the present invention described above.

  According to the present invention described above, it is possible to increase the amount of an object to be plated that is put in the barrel within a range in which the energizing terminal is not buried, and to increase the plating processing amount.

  In addition, when the energizing terminal extends from the position in the second quadrant region or the boundary axis in the vertical section with the rotation axis of the barrel as a perpendicular line, the effect of increasing the amount of the workpiece to be put in the barrel is obtained. It has become easier to demonstrate.

  If a support body that rotatably supports the barrel is passed through the barrel and the end of the support body is positioned in the barrel so that the current-carrying terminal is fixedly supported, a specific configuration example can be obtained. In the barrel, the energizing terminal can be supported so as to be stationary while being eccentric from the rotation axis of the barrel.

  The end of the support is accommodated in the recess of the side wall, the outer surface of the support is positioned so as not to protrude from the recess to the inside of the barrel, and the outer peripheral surface of the end of the support and the inner peripheral surface of the recess are both annular In this case, the support for the energizing terminal and the inner surface of the barrel may be used by using a polygonal cylindrical barrel and rotating the barrel and making the energizing terminal eccentric from the rotation axis. It is possible to reliably avoid the object to be plated between the two.

  The other features of the present invention and the operational effects thereof will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

  FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view as seen from the front of the barrel plating apparatus according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a view taken along the line II-II in FIG. The barrel plating apparatus 1 includes at least a barrel 3 and energization terminals 5. The barrel 3 is a member configured in a polygonal cylindrical shape (see FIG. 2).

  The barrel 3 is rotatably supported by the support means 7. First, the support means 7 has a bearing 9 that rotatably supports the end portion of the barrel 3 on one side of the barrel 3 in the rotation axis direction (right side in FIG. 1).

  Furthermore, the support means 7 has a support 11 on the other side (the left side in FIG. 1) of the barrel 3 in the rotation axis direction. A bearing 13 is interposed between the outer peripheral portion of the support 11 and the barrel 3. Thereby, the support body 11 is supporting the barrel 3 rotatably. The support 11 and the bearing 9 are supported by a frame 15 that is a component of the support means 7.

  A sprocket 12 is provided at the end of the barrel 3. Furthermore, known power transmission means (not shown) is engaged with the sprocket 12, and the barrel 3 is rotated by the driving force input to the sprocket 12.

  FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the barrel alone. Details of the barrel 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3. The barrel 3 includes a body portion 21 and a pair of side wall portions 23 and 25. The trunk | drum 21 is an octagonal cylindrical member as a whole. In other words, the body portion 21 is a cylindrical member having the rotation axis CL as an axis, and has an octagonal annular cross section as a cross-sectional shape orthogonal to the rotation axis CL.

  A pair of side wall portions 23 and 25 are disposed on both sides of the body portion 21 in the rotation axis direction. The body portion 21 has eight constituent planes 21a corresponding to the octagons, and each of the constituent planes 21a is provided with a large number of perforations and / or meshes (not shown). Such a large number of perforations and / or meshes provide a function such that the plating solution can flow and the object to be plated cannot flow between the inside and outside of the body portion 21.

  Again, with reference to FIG.1 and FIG.2, the structure of the electricity supply terminal 5 is demonstrated. The energizing terminal 5 extends into the barrel 3 and functions as a cathode terminal in the present embodiment. The energization terminal 5 includes a trunk portion 31 and a plurality (three in the illustrated example) of branch portions 33.

  The trunk portion 31 extends substantially parallel to the rotation axis CL of the barrel 3. On the other hand, each of the branch portions 33 hangs down from the trunk portion 31, that is, is supported by the trunk portion 31 in a cantilever manner. Moreover, each branch part 33 is inclined and extended with respect to the vertical direction, and intersects with the rotation axis CL of the barrel 3 as shown in FIG. The branch portions 33 are spaced from each other at equal intervals when viewed in the direction of the rotation axis CL.

  The trunk portion 31 and the branch portion 33 have current-carrying portions 31a and 33a and covering portions 31b and 33b that insulate the outer periphery thereof, as shown in FIG. Moreover, the front-end | tip part 33c of each branch part 33 is comprised as a part which is not coat | covered but the electricity supply part is exposed.

  The energization terminal 5 is supported by the end of the support 11 located in the barrel 3. That is, the support 11 has a shaft portion 41 that penetrates the side wall portion 25 in the barrel 3 and a disk-shaped end portion 43 provided at an end portion of the shaft portion 41 inside the barrel 3. The shaft portion 41 extends on the rotation axis CL of the barrel 3. The trunk portion 31 of the energizing terminal 5 is fixed to the disc-shaped end portion 43 of the support 11 at the base portion thereof, and is supported in a cantilever manner.

  The disc-shaped end 43 of the support 11 is accommodated in a recess 51 formed on the inner surface of the side wall 3 in the barrel 3. The recess 51 is formed in a disc shape corresponding to the disc-like end portion 43. That is, the outer peripheral surface 43a of the disc-shaped end portion 43 and the inner peripheral surface 51a of the concave portion 51 are both formed in an annular shape.

  Further, the outer surface 43 b on the inner side of the barrel 3 at the disc-shaped end portion 43 is arranged so as not to protrude from the recess 51 to the inside of the barrel 3. That is, the outer surface 43 b of the disc-shaped end portion 43 is arranged so as not to protrude to the inside of the barrel 3 from the boundary surface BS between the barrel portion 21 having the polygonal inner peripheral surface and the side wall portion 25. In other words, the thickness of the disc-shaped end 43 and the depth of the recess 51 are selected so as to be like this.

  The disc-shaped end portion 43 also has a current-carrying portion 43c and a covering portion 43d that insulates the outer periphery thereof. The energization part 43c of the disk-shaped end part 43 is connected to the energization part 31a of the trunk part 31 in the energization terminal 5 so that energization is possible.

  Next, the eccentric position of the energization terminal 5 will be described. FIG. 4 shows a longitudinal section with the rotation axis CL of the barrel 3 as a perpendicular line. As shown in FIG. 4, the inner region of the barrel 3 is divided into four regions, a first quadrant region PP, a second quadrant region MP, a third quadrant region MM, and a fourth quadrant region PM.

  In the present embodiment, the energization terminal 5 is formed so as to extend from the second quadrant region MP in the barrel 3. That is, the root portion of the trunk portion 31 of the energization terminal 5 is connected to a portion of the disc-shaped end portion 43 of the support 11 that is divided into the second quadrant region MP in the barrel 3.

  Each quadrant is assigned as follows. The first quadrant PP and the second quadrant MP are assigned to the upper half of the vertical direction, the third quadrant MM and the fourth quadrant PM are assigned to the lower half of the vertical direction, and the barrel rotation direction RD is within the upper half region. The first quadrant PP is assigned to the upstream side, and the third quadrant MM is assigned to the upstream side in the barrel rotation direction RD in the lower half region. Each quadrant is divided by boundary axes YA and XA as shown in FIG.

  Next, the barrel plating apparatus configured as described above and an electronic component manufacturing method using the barrel plating apparatus will be described. In addition, as an example of the manufacturing method of the electronic component, a method including a plating forming step of the external electrode in the ceramic electronic component can be mentioned. In this case, the steps other than the plating step may be well known. Therefore, the description thereof is omitted, and a detailed description will be given from the plating step described later.

  For example, an object to be plated such as a ceramic electronic component (and a dummy ball if necessary) is placed in the barrel 3 and the barrel 3 is immersed in a plating solution. And while rotating the barrel 3 in a plating solution, it supplies with electricity to a to-be-plated object via the electricity supply terminal 5, and performs plating on the surface.

  Here, during the plating process in which the barrel rotates, if the current-carrying terminal is buried in the object to be plated in the barrel, uniform rotation and rolling of the object to be plated in the barrel is hindered. It may be difficult to maintain the quality of the product. For this reason, until now, it was common that the amount of the object to be plated placed in the barrel is limited to about 1/3 of the barrel volume.

  Therefore, in the present invention, by extending the current-carrying terminal 5 from a position eccentric from the rotation axis CL of the barrel 3, the amount of the object to be plated placed in the barrel can be increased accordingly. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the rotating upper surface UL of the object to be plated is indicated by a two-dot chain line, and the amount of the object to be plated placed in the barrel can be set to be more than half of the barrel volume.

  In the present embodiment, the energizing terminal 5 is formed so as to extend from the second quadrant region MP in the barrel 3. When the barrel rotation direction RD is a direction as shown in FIG. 4 for example, the upper surface UL of the workpiece to be rotated is inclined as shown in the figure due to the influence of gravity and rotation. For this reason, by extending the current-carrying terminal 5 from the second quadrant region MP in the barrel 3 or its boundary axes YA and XA, the effect of increasing the amount of the object to be plated placed in the barrel is more easily exhibited.

  Moreover, the barrel 3 is penetrated along the rotation axis CL, and the end portion of the support 11 is disposed in the barrel 3, and the energization terminal 5 is fixedly supported by the end portion. As a result, in the rotating barrel 3, the current-carrying terminal 5 could be supported so as to be stationary while being eccentric from the rotation axis CL of the barrel 3.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the outer surface 43b on the inner side of the barrel 3 in the disc-shaped end portion 43 of the support 11 is disposed so as not to protrude from the concave portion 51 of the side wall portion 25 to the inside of the barrel 3, and Both the outer peripheral surface 43a of the end 43 and the inner peripheral surface 51a of the recess 51 are formed in an annular shape. As a result, the inner peripheral surface of the barrel portion 21 of the barrel 3 is formed in a polygonal cylindrical shape, but the barrel 3 is rotated and the energizing terminal 5 is stationary in a state of being eccentric from the rotation axis CL. It is possible to reliably avoid the object to be plated from being sandwiched between the body 11 and the inner surface of the barrel 3.

  Thus, in the barrel plating apparatus according to the present embodiment, there are a number of excellent effects, and in particular, the amount of an object to be plated that can be put in the barrel 3 within a range where the energizing terminal 5 is not buried can be increased. It became possible to increase the plating throughput.

  Although the contents of the present invention have been specifically described with reference to the preferred embodiments, various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art based on the basic technical idea and teachings of the present invention. It is self-explanatory.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the energizing terminal is formed so as to extend from the second quadrant region in the barrel, but the present invention is not limited to this. Therefore, the current-carrying terminal is in the first quadrant region PP, in the second quadrant region MP, in the third quadrant region MM or in consideration of the inclination of the upper surface UL during rotation of the workpiece to be assumed by the user. It may be formed so as to extend from above the boundary axes YA and XA.

  In addition, the energization terminal in the present invention is not limited to an aspect including the straight trunk portion 31 and the straight branch portion 33, and can be appropriately modified. For example, one or both of the trunk portion and the branch portion may be curved, or may be configured as a single curved rod-shaped member. Alternatively, a mode in which a portion corresponding to the branch portion extends in a plurality of directions with respect to a portion corresponding to the trunk portion may be employed.

  The energizing terminal is not limited to being supported in a cantilever manner. For example, it may be supported on both sides of the barrel in a doubly supported manner. In that case, the end portions of the support body that penetrates the barrel and is disposed inside can be respectively disposed on both sides of the barrel.

  Two energizing terminals may be extended in a cantilever manner. As such an example, on both sides of the barrel, the ends of the support are disposed in the barrel, and the energizing terminals are fixed to the ends.

  Moreover, the octagonal aspect shown in the embodiment is an example, and is not particularly limited.

  Moreover, although the aspect which forms the external electrode in a ceramic electronic component in the plating process was illustrated as a manufacturing method of an electronic component, this invention is not limited to this. That is, it does not matter whether the electronic component is a ceramic component, and the plating step may be a step of forming any portion as long as it is a conductive portion.

It is the longitudinal cross-sectional view seen from the front of the barrel plating apparatus which concerns on this Embodiment. It is the figure seen along II-II of FIG. It is a perspective view of a barrel alone. It is a longitudinal section which makes the rotation axis of a barrel a perpendicular line.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Barrel plating apparatus 3 Barrel 5 Current supply terminal 11 Support body 21 Body part 23, 25 Side wall part 43 Disk-shaped edge part (end part of a support body)
51 recess

Claims (2)

A rotatably supported barrel;
An electrical terminal extending into the barrel and energizing the object to be plated,
The energizing terminal extends from a position eccentric from the rotation axis of the barrel,
The barrel includes a barrel portion configured in a polygonal cylindrical shape, and a pair of side wall portions provided on both sides in the rotation axis direction of the barrel portion.
At least one of the side walls is penetrated by a support that rotatably supports the barrel,
A concave portion is formed on the barrel inner surface of the side wall portion through which the support passes,
The recess includes an end portion of the support,
The end of the support is fixedly supporting the energizing terminal located in the barrel,
The outer surface facing the inside of the barrel at the end of the support is positioned so as not to protrude from the recess to the inside of the barrel,
Both the outer peripheral surface of the end of the support and the inner peripheral surface of the recess are formed in an annular shape,
The energizing terminal has a vertical cross section with the rotation axis of the barrel as a vertical line, and the position in the second quadrant region or on the boundary axis thereof in a vertical cross section in which the rotation direction of the barrel is counterclockwise. extending and <br/> barrel plating apparatus. The manufacturing method of an electronic component including plating to the electronic component as a to-be-plated object using the barrel plating apparatus of Claim 1.