JPH06156769A - Article sucking and transporting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an article sucking and transporting device which is small- sized, possesses the high economic efficiency, and can easily transport articles. CONSTITUTION:A cylinder 2 lowers an elevator body 9, and allows an sucking pad 14 to make it contact with the uppermost layer of the piled wiring boards B. The sucking pad 14 sucks the wiring board B. At the time point when the sucking pad 14 comes in contact with the wiring board B, an elevator shaft 13 shifts and is separated from the elevator body 9. When, a detector installed on the elevator body 9 detects the shift in the prescribed quantity of the elevator shaft 13, the cylinder 2 raises the elevator body 9. Accordingly, the sucking pad 14 sucks the wiring board B in the uppermost layer and rises.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for sequentially adsorbing and stacking stacked articles from the upper side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a process of mounting electronic components on a wiring board, a method of transferring a wiring board is a method in which a large number of wiring boards are stacked, and the stacked wiring boards are sequentially picked up from an upper layer side and transferred. is there.

Conventionally, as the carrying method, specifically, there are a method of adsorbing and picking up a wiring board and a method of pushing out the wiring board in a horizontal direction.

The former method will be described. In this method, the device shown in FIG. 4 is used. In this device, an elevating body provided with a suction pad a is supported on a guide c by a guide c, and
The ball screw e is rotated by the switch d to elevate the elevating / lowering body b. The elevating / lowering body b is brought into contact with the uppermost one of the elevating / lowering bodies f from above, and the wiring board f is attracted by a suction force applied from a vacuum generator (not shown). Adsorbs and then again moves up and down by the servomotor d.
Is to raise.

The latter method will be described. In this method, as shown in FIG. 5, a frame i that horizontally supports a plurality of wiring boards f at vertically spaced positions is used. The wiring board f is removably supported in grooves formed on both side walls of the frame i. The elevator j sequentially raises the frame i at intervals of one pitch with the pitch of the wiring boards f as one pitch, and pushes each wiring board f supported by the frame i into a pusher k.
To push out from frame i.

[0006]

However, each of the above methods has the following problems.

In the former method, the control circuit g instructs the drive amount of the servo motor d, and the motor drive circuit h drives the servo motor d. Information such as the height of the wiring boards f stacked in advance is input to the control circuit g, and the control circuit h controls the drive of the servo motor d based on this information.

However, the configuration of the control circuit g and the drive circuit h for controlling the drive of the servomotor d, which is a device for driving the lifting and lowering body b as described above, is very complicated, large-scale, and expensive in price.

In the latter method, since the wiring boards f are arranged at intervals, the frame i becomes large in size, and a large space is required to install the frame i. Also,
Since it is necessary to insert a large number of wiring boards f into the groove of the frame i one by one, a lot of work is required for the work.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an article adsorbing / conveying apparatus which is economical, small in size, and capable of easily conveying an article.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an article adsorbing and conveying apparatus of the present invention comprises an adsorbing pad for adsorbing an article and a vacuum generating device for applying an adsorbing force for adsorbing the article to the adsorbing pad. An elevating shaft that holds the suction pad, and an elevating body that holds the elevating shaft so that the elevating shaft can move up and down.
A spring provided on the lifting body for giving a downward force to the lifting shaft, and a detector provided on the lifting body for detecting that the lifting shaft has risen by a predetermined amount relative to the lifting body. And a cylinder device for moving the lifting body up and down, and the cylinder device is driven by a detection signal from the detector to raise the lifting body.

The cylinder device uses an air cylinder.

[0013]

The cylinder device lowers the lifting body to bring the suction pad into contact with the uppermost layer of the laminated articles. The adsorption pad adsorbs the article. When the suction pad comes into contact with the article, the lifting shaft moves and escapes with respect to the lifting body. Next, when the detector provided on the lifting body detects a predetermined amount of movement of the lifting shaft, the cylinder device raises the lifting body. As a result, the adsorption pad adsorbs the uppermost article and ascends.

The circuit for controlling the drive of the cylinder device has a simpler structure than the control circuit for the servo motor. In particular, it is more effective if the cylinder device uses an air cylinder. Since the items are installed in a stacked state,
The product installation space is small and the product handling is simple.

[0015]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show an embodiment of the article adsorption / conveyance apparatus of the present invention.

This embodiment is used for sequentially picking up a number of laminated wiring boards from the uppermost one in the process of mounting electronic components on the wiring board.

In the figure, 1 is a bracket for supporting the entire apparatus,
This is mounted on a horizontal moving device 22 described later. An air cylinder 2 serves as a support member at the center of the bracket 1.
Is vertically supported by a piston rod 3 protruding from the lower end of the air cylinder 2. The air cylinder 2 is connected to a compressed air supply device 6 via a pipe 5, and the compressed air supply device 6 is drive-controlled by a drive circuit 7.

The piston rod 3 of the air cylinder 2 is connected to a lifting body 9 via a universal joint 8. The elevating body 9 is a plate-like object arranged horizontally, and the guide shaft 1 is provided at both ends.
0 and 10 are connected. The guide shafts 10, 10 are arranged vertically and the bearings 11, 1 are provided at both ends of the bracket 1.
1 is supported so that it can be raised and lowered.

A bearing 12 vertically provided at the center of the lifting body 9.
An elevating shaft 13 is movably supported by the elevating shaft 13, and a suction pad 14 which is vertically positioned is attached to the lower end of the elevating shaft 13.
The suction pad 14 has a hole opened at the lower end surface, and is connected to a vacuum generator 16 provided on the bracket 1 via a pipe 15. The vacuum generator 16 sucks the outside air from the hole of the suction pad 14 to apply the suction force of the suction pad 14.

The upper part of the elevating shaft 13 is inserted into a spring retainer 17 fixed to the central portion of the elevating body 9, and the spring retainer 17 is located on the lower side and a spring receiver 18 is inserted. Lifting axis 1
A step portion 13 a for receiving the spring receiver 18 is formed on the reference numeral 3. A compression coil spring 19 is arranged between the spring retainer 17 and the spring receiver 18, and the compression coil spring 19 presses the spring receiver 18 against the step portion 13 a of the elevating shaft 13. As a result, the compression coil spring 19 applies a downward force to the elevating shaft 13. The elevating shaft 13 is pushed by the compression coil spring 19 and descends.

However, a nut 21 is screwed into a portion projecting upward from the spring receiver 18, and the nut 21 abuts the upper surface of the spring float 18 to regulate the lowering of the elevating shaft 13. The spring receiver 18 moves up and down together with the lifting shaft 13. The protrusion 1 that horizontally protrudes from a part of the spring bearing 18
8a is formed.

Further, at the center of the lifting body 9, the lifting shaft 13
When the spring receiver 18 moves up and down by moving up and down
A light-emitting element mounting body 20A and a light-receiving element mounting body 20B are provided so as to face each other with a portion serving as a path for moving up and down. The light emitting element mounting body 20A has a light emitting element (not shown) that emits light, and the light receiving element mounting body 20B has a light receiving element (not shown) that receives the light emitted from the light emitting element.
Are installed respectively.

The light emitting element mounting body 20A, the light receiving element mounting body 20B, the light emitting element and the light receiving element constitute an optical detector, and the light receiving element is connected to the drive circuit 7.
The light emitting element always receives the light emitted from the light emitting element, and the light emitting element mounting body 20A and the light receiving element mounting body 2
The light receiving element outputs a signal to the drive circuit 7 when the projecting portion 18a of the spring bearing 18 passes between the light receiving element and 0B and blocks the light emitted from the light emitting element to the light receiving element.

The horizontal moving device 22 is a device for moving the bracket 1 in the horizontal moving direction.

The operation of the article adsorbing device thus configured will be described.

FIG. 3 shows an operation in which a large number of laminated wiring boards B are sequentially adsorbed and picked up from the uppermost one.

As shown in FIG. 3 (a), the article adsorbing / conveying device is composed of a large number of wiring boards B stacked by a horizontal moving device 22.
Has been moved to the upper side of. The compressed air supply device 6 controls compressed air and discharge to and from the air cylinder 2 in accordance with a command from the drive circuit 7 and transfers the compressed air to the piston rod of the air cylinder 2 downward. By the downward movement of the piston rod 3, the elevating body 9 is pushed and descends, and the elevating body 9 pulls the guide shafts 10 and 10. Guide shaft 10,1
The lift 9 supported by 0 moves up and down stably.

Along with the lifting body 9, a lifting shaft 13, a spring retainer 1
7, the spring receiver 18, the compression coil spring 19, and the optical detector descend. The suction pad 14 descends together with the lifting shaft 13. As shown in FIG. 3B, the lower end surface of the suction pad 14 abuts on the upper surface of the uppermost layer of the wiring board B while the piston rod 3 of the air cylinder 2 is descending,
Along with this, the lowering of the lifting shaft 13 is also stopped. The spring bearing 18 stops descending together with the elevating shaft 13. Since the lifting shaft 13 is movably supported by the bearing 12, the lifting body 9 can lift the lifting shaft 13 even after the suction pad 14 contacts the wiring board B.
Be free to. For this reason, the lifting body 9
The spring retainer 17 presses the compression coil spring 19 from the upper side without being restrained by the stop.

That is, the force applied to the lifting shaft 13 by the suction pad 14 contacting the wiring board B acts on the compression coil spring 19, and acts on the lifting body via the compression coil spring 19. Therefore, the impact of the device received when it abuts the wiring board B is mitigated, and the wiring board B which is easily damaged is protected.

The vacuum generator 16 is constantly driven to exert a suction force on the suction pad 14. Therefore, when the suction pad 14 contacts the wiring board b, the suction pad 14 sucks the wiring board B by the suction force.

As the spring retainer 17 compresses the compression coil spring 19, the elevating body 9 descends, and the light emitting element mounting body 20A and the light receiving element mounting body 20B of the detector are attached to the protruding portion 18a of the spring receiver 18. It descends and approaches. The projection 18a of the spring receiver 18 passes between the light emitting element mounting body 20A and the light receiving element mounting body 20B, and blocks the light emitted from the light emitting element from the light receiving element. The learning element outputs a signal to the drive circuit 7.

The drive circuit 7 controls the compressed air supply device 6, the compressed air supply device 6 controls the compressed air and the discharge to the air cylinder 2, and moves the piston rod 3 of the air cylinder 2 by moving the piston rod 3 upward. As shown in FIG. 3 (c), the lifting body 9 is moved by being pulled up by the piston rod 3, and together with the lifting body 9, the lifting shaft 13, the spring retainer 1
7, the spring receiver 18, the compression coil spring 19, and the optical detector rise. The suction pad 14 ascends together with the lifting shaft 13 in a state where the wiring board B is suctioned. Thus, the suction pad 14 picks up the uppermost layer of the wiring boards B stacked.

After that, the article adsorbing and conveying device is horizontally moved by the horizontal moving device 22 and conveyed to a predetermined place.

By repeating the above-described operation, the article suctioning / transporting device picks up and transports the uppermost layer of the laminated wiring boards B one by one.

Here, the elevating shaft 13 to which the suction pad 14 is attached is provided so as to be movable up and down with respect to the elevating body 9, and the elevating body 9 is provided with a detector for detecting the positional relationship between this and the elevating shaft 13. Therefore, the wiring boards B stacked by the combination of the operations of the lifting body 9, the lifting shaft 13, and the detector are combined.
Even if the position of the uppermost layer of the suction pad 14 is changed, the changed position of the uppermost layer is detected to drive the air cylinder 2 to drive the suction pad 14
And the wiring board B can be picked up.

Therefore, the air cylinder 2 can be used in place of the servo motor as a device for raising and lowering the suction pad 14 according to the change of the position of the uppermost layer of the laminated wiring boards B. The servomotor requires a large-scale control circuit, and it is necessary to input predetermined data into the control circuit in advance. On the other hand, with the above-described configuration, the suction pad 14 is used with the same accuracy as the servo motor by using the air cylinder 2.
Position control can be performed. The control of the air cylinder 2 can be performed by a simple control circuit as compared with the servo motor. With this configuration, since the position of the uppermost layer of the wiring boards B stacked by the copying and adsorption device itself is detected, the data input for detecting the position of the uppermost layer of the wiring board B is input to the drive circuit 7. There is no need to enter data to detect.

Moreover, by stacking the wiring boards B, the space for installing the wiring boards B may be small.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be modified in various ways.

[0040]

As described above, according to the article adsorbing and conveying apparatus of the present invention, although the cylinder apparatus is used in a simple structure, the positions of the uppermost layers of a large number of laminated articles are detected and each uppermost layer is detected. It is possible to carry out the operation of adsorbing and transporting other articles with high accuracy, which is economical, and because the target articles are stacked, it is possible to prevent the space for providing the articles from increasing in size and to easily handle the articles. Is.

Particularly, when the cylinder device uses an air cylinder, the structure is simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway side view showing an article adsorption / transport device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway front view showing the article adsorption / transport device of the embodiment.

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing a state before an article is adsorbed in the article adsorption / transport device of the embodiment. FIG. 6B is a diagram showing a state when an article is adsorbed. FIG. 6C is a diagram showing a state after the article is sucked.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional article adsorption / transportation device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of a conventional article adsorption and transportation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Two

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] September 28, 1993

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] Figure 3

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a process of adsorbing an article in the article adsorption / transport device of the embodiment.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A suction pad for sucking an article, a vacuum generator for applying a suction force for sucking the article to the suction pad, a lifting shaft for holding the suction pad, and a lifting shaft for holding the lifting shaft up and down. An elevating body, a spring that is provided on the elevating body and applies a downward force to the elevating shaft, and the elevating shaft that is provided on the elevating body is elevated by a predetermined amount with respect to the elevating body. And a cylinder device for raising and lowering the elevating body, and the cylinder device is driven by a detection signal from the detector to elevate the elevating body. Article suction and conveyance device. 2. The article adsorbing and conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the cylinder device uses an air cylinder.