JPH03200621A - Article conveying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the conveyance efficiency and inspection efficiency of the whole of an inspecting device by returning an article to the upper stream side of a conveying line one in a state that the article positioned on the upper stream side is locked, in a device to convey and inspect a small electric part, e.g. IC. CONSTITUTION:An IC is slipped down over a properly inclined conveying rail 1 under gravity. A stopper 2 is lowered to the conveying rail 1 by a control device to stop an IC 28, and second IC 29 is stopped on the upper stream of the IC 28. A solenoid 12 is driven by the control device and a rotary rotor 20 is brought into contact with the upper surface of the IC 29 along with lowering of a shaft 17. Further, when the shaft 17 is lowered, the rotary roller 20 is rotated in the direction of an arrow mark (b) against the force of a coil spring 24, and the IC 29 is pushed back to the upper stream side of the conveying rail 1. The stopper 2 is raised to feed the IC 28 to an inspecting device. Thereafter, the stopper 2 is lowered again, drive of the solenoid 12 is stopped, and the rotary roller 20 is released from lock.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an article conveying device, and in particular,
The present invention relates to an article conveying device that can be effectively used in a device that sequentially conveys and inspects small electronic components such as ICs.

(Prior Art) In an IC inspection device or the like, since a plurality of items are usually inspected, a long conveyance line is provided, and a plurality of inspection positions are provided along the conveyance line to sequentially conduct inspections. In this case, the ICs that are sequentially moving on the conveyance line,
It is necessary to send one piece to each inspection position. Therefore, immediately before each inspection position, the flow of ICs is temporarily stopped by a stopper, and in order to feed the first IC one by one to the inspection position, the ICs located upstream of the first IC are engaged by a locking means. Then, release the stopper and release the first I.
C is sent out to the inspection position.

Figure 3 shows Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-69 filed by the present applicant.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a state of transporting an IC in a conventional transport device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 616.

The transport rail 1 is provided with an inclination so that the IC can fall due to its own weight, and an IC stopper 2 and an IC holding lever 3 are installed on the transport rail upstream of a predetermined inspection position A on the transport rail 1. It is provided so that it can move up and down. The ICs slide down sequentially from the upstream side of the transport line 1.

FIG. 3(a) shows a situation in which successive ICs are transported normally. After the IC stopper 2 is lowered toward the transport surface of the transport rail 1 to stop the flow of ICs, the IC holding lever is 3 and touch it to the second IC, then press this I.
Lock C. Thereafter, the IC stopper 2 is raised to release the stoppage of the first IC, and the first IC is moved to the inspection position A by its own weight. At this time, the second IC is I
Since it is locked by the C holding lever 3, it does not slide down the conveyance line 1 and remains at its original position. After the first IC has moved to the inspection position A, the IC stopper 2 is lowered again and the IC holding lever 3 is raised to release the second IC from the IC stopper 2. move to position. In this way, the ICs that are sequentially transported are sent out one by one to a predetermined inspection position.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, since the IC package is a molded resin product, cracks inevitably occur at the joints around the outer periphery of the package. Therefore, in the conventional method described above, as shown in FIG. 3(b), even if the IC on the upstream side is locked with the IC holding lever 3 and the IC stopper 2 is raised, the packages of both ICs are It has been confirmed that there is often a problem in which the IC on the downstream side does not slide down properly due to the contact between the terminals of the IC. The present applicant attempted to blow air to move the downstream IC smoothly, but there are still cases where the IC does not move away.

If the IC on the downstream side is not moved, this IC will remain on the upstream side of the IC stopper 2, and packages will be conveyed one after another to the upstream side, resulting in a so-called jam (JAM).
This will cause a major hindrance to IC inspections, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to eliminate such drawbacks and provide an article conveyance device that prevents ICs from getting entangled with each other due to the edges of packages when the ICs are sent out.

(Means and operations for solving the problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides means for stopping articles sequentially conveyed on a conveyance line, and an upstream side of the articles stopped by the stopping means. means for locking the article located at the upstream side, and while the article located at the upstream side is locked by the locking means, the stopping of the stopping means is released and the article is stopped by the stopping means. In the article conveying device, the article is configured to send out the article to the downstream side, wherein the locking means includes a rotating roller, a means for rotatably supporting the rotating roller at an eccentric position, and a means for vertically moving the supporting means. The apparatus is characterized in that it is configured such that the rotating roller temporarily returns the article located on the upstream side to the upstream side of the conveyance line in a state where the article is locked.

As described above, in the present invention, an article positioned upstream of an article to be sent downstream is locked by a rotating roller and then returned once to the upstream side, so that the downstream side, which was previously stopped by a stopper, is The article on the upstream side can be reliably separated from the article on the upstream side. Therefore, even if the articles on the upstream side and the articles on the downstream side are intertwined, they can be reliably separated and the downstream article can be sent out smoothly.

(Embodiment) FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views showing an embodiment in which the conveying device of the present invention is applied to an IC inspection device. As shown in FIG. 1, the IC is conveyed while sliding down from the upstream side toward the downstream side due to its own weight on the conveyance rail 1 arranged with an appropriate inclination. An IC stopper 2 that is movable in the vertical direction is installed above the transport rail l. An inspection position is provided downstream of this stopper 2. The IC stopper 2 is lowered to above the transport rail 1 under the control of a control device (not shown) and acts to stop the movement of the IC. An IC locking device 4 is arranged upstream of the stopper 2. The structure of the IC locking device 4 is as follows. An arm 8 is attached to the upper part of the support stand 6 installed on the base 5 via a pin 7, and a hole 8a is bored in the rear end of the arm 8, and a pin 9 is connected to the support stand 6 provided at approximately the center of the support stand 6. They are connected using a coil spring 10. The rear end of the arm 8 is a coil spring 1
Since the arm 8 is pulled downward at 0, the arm 8 receives a force so as to rotate in the direction shown by the arrow a about the pin 7, and its movement is restricted by a stopper 11 fixed to the support tube 6. A solenoid 12 is further installed on the support base 6, and a link plate 14 is pivotally connected to the plunger of this solenoid via a pin 13. The link plate 14 is further connected to a substantially central portion of the arm 8 by a pin 15, and is configured to transmit the movement of the solenoid 12 to the arm 8. The tip of the arm 8 is pivotally connected to an IC holding shaft 17 via a pin 16. IC holding shaft 1
The lower end of 7 is connected to a U-shaped rotating roller receiver 18, and inside the rotating roller receiver 18, an IC pressing lever 19 and a semicircular rotating roller 20 connected to this lever are mounted on a shaft 21. It is pivoted. As clearly shown in FIG. 2, the shaft 21 is eccentrically set downstream from the central axis of the rotating roller 20 when viewed in the IC transport direction. I
A hole 19a is bored at the other end of the C-holding lever 19, and a pin 23 is attached to the approximately central portion of a bearing case 22 that surrounds the center of the IC-holding shaft 17.
and are connected by a coil spring 24. The inside of the bearing case 22 is as shown in FIG. Bearings or bearings 2 are installed at the upper and lower ends of the IC holding shaft 17.
5a and 25b are attached, and the center portion is chamfered as shown in FIG. A shaft 26 is provided in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the IC holding shaft 17, and the surface of the shaft 26 and the IC
Chamfered surface 1' of presser shaft 17? a to prevent the IC holding shaft 17 from rotating. Bearings 27a and 27b are attached to both ends of the shaft 26.

Next, the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. The stopper 2 is lowered to the transport rail 1 to stop the IC 28 moving on the transport rail l. Then,
The second IC29 moves on the transport rail l and the IC
Stops upstream of No. 28. At this time, the arm 8 is in a state where it has been pulled up to the position of the stopper 11 by the action of the coil spring 10, and therefore the rotating roller 20 is
It stopped above 9. At this time, the coil spring 24 is pulling the lever 19. A control device (not shown) drives the solenoid 12 to move the arm 8 downward via the link plate 14 against the force of the coil spring 10. The shaft 17 descends in conjunction with the movement of the arm 8, and as the shaft 17 descends, the rotary roller 20 descends and comes into contact with the upper surface of the IC 29. It is preferable to position the IC locking device 4 so that this first contact position is slightly downstream of the upper surface of the IC 29.

After contacting the IC 29, by further lowering the shaft 17, the rotating roller 2 is moved against the force of the coil spring 24.
0 rotates in the direction indicated by the arrows in FIGS. 2 and 3. As the rotating roller 20 rotates, the IC 29 is pushed back to the upstream side of the transport rail 1 and separated from the IC 28. After this, raise stopper 2 and
28 is released, the IC 2B slides down on the transport rail 1 under its own weight and is sent to the inspection position. During this time, the IC 29 is pressed by the rotating roller 20 and is held on the transport rail 1, and does not move.

Next, after lowering the stopper 2 again, when the drive of the solenoid 12 is stopped under the control of the control device, the IC holding shaft 17 is pulled up via the arm 8 by the action of the coil spring 10, and the rotating roller 20 is Release the lock on IC29.

The rotating roller 20 moves the lever 1 by the action of the coil spring 24.
9 in the direction opposite to the direction indicated by the arrow, and returns to the original position. The IC 29 slides on the transport rail due to its own weight, moves to this position by the stopper 2, and then stops. When the next IC is transported and stopped upstream of the IC 29, the above-described operation is repeated to send the ICs one by one to the inspection position.

In the above-described embodiment, the entire rotating roller is made of metal, but mesh-like grooves may be provided on the rotating surface to generate frictional force with the IC surface. The surface may be covered with an elastic material. Furthermore, the entire rotating roller can be made of an elastic body such as rubber.

Furthermore, the shape of the rotating roller is not limited to a semicircular shape, as long as the portion that contacts the IC is a curved surface. Further, the present invention is not limited only to the inspection of ICs, but can also be applied to the case of sequentially conveying articles having cracks on the outer periphery, such as toys with plastic bottom molds.

(Effects of the Invention) As detailed above, according to the present invention, the IC locking device has an eccentric cam structure, which locks the movement of the IC by bringing the rotating roller into contact with the IC, and locks the IC. Because it is pushed back to the upstream side, even if the upstream IC package and the downstream IC package are entangled with each other, they can be separated, and the ICs can be smoothly delivered one by one to the inspection position. can. Therefore, since jams due to entanglement of particles do not occur, the conveyance efficiency and inspection efficiency of the entire inspection apparatus using the conveyance apparatus of the present invention can be significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the detailed configuration of a part of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing its operating status, and FIG.
FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a conventional transport device. 1... Conveyance rail 2... Stopper 4...
IC locking device 5...Base 6...Support stand 7.9.13.15.16.23...Bin 8...Arm 8a, 19a...Hole 10.2
4... Coil spring 11... Stopper 14... Link plate 18... Rotating roller receiver 20... Rotating roller 22... Bearing cases 25a, 25b, 27a. 26...Shaft 2 2...Solenoid 7...IC holding shirt 9...IC holding lever ■...Eccentric shaft 27b...Bearing 8.29...IC @1 diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A means for stopping articles sequentially conveyed on a conveyance line; and a means for locking an article located upstream of the article stopped by the stopping means; In the article conveying device, the stopping means is released from the stopping means while the article at the position is being locked, and the article stopped by the stopping means is sent downstream, wherein the locking means rotates. A roller, a means for rotatably supporting the rotary roller at an eccentric position, and a means for vertically moving the support means, the article being held on the upstream side by the rotary roller. 1. A conveyance device for articles, characterized in that the article is configured to be returned to the upstream side of a conveyance line.