JPH0710705B2 - Manufacturing method of chain type container for conveying precision parts - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a variety of electronic devices such as IC chips and various odd-shaped parts (for example, connectors, switches, transmitters) or relatively small precision parts for assembling precision machines (hereinafter collectively referred to as "these"). "IC chip") and a chain type container for transporting precision parts, which is suitable for individually holding and transporting a large number of IC chips.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, most of the main circuit components have tended to be made into chips in order to improve the operational reliability and assembly efficiency of electronic equipment, and supply of IC chips to various intermediate processing lines and final assembly lines. In this case, a relatively large-sized transport container in which concave portions for accommodating chips are arranged in a plurality of rows and columns is used. In such a large container, chips are individually transferred to the processing or assembly line by a robot hand or the like arranged in the vicinity of one side edge of the transfer line, but the other side edge of the transfer line is used. The robot hand has to reciprocate over a long distance when taking out the IC chip in a portion close to the container from the container. This increases the waiting time on the processing line side, which is not only a negative factor for improving efficiency, but also the gripping position must be changed every time, so if there is a missed grip, there is a risk of chip damage or confusion in the processing line. is there. In order to avoid such an adverse effect, the position control of the robot hand must be performed with high precision, and the control cost also increases.

Therefore, in a part of the industry, the robot hand intermittently moves in the length direction the strip-shaped bodies respectively containing the IC chips into the plurality of individual recesses arranged in a row so that the robot hand can process the transfer line and the side. A method has been proposed in which a short fixed span between a line and the like is reciprocated. In general, the band-shaped body, which is injection-molded with a wall thickness sufficient to protect an IC chip using a synthetic resin, has a bottom plate in which one row of concave portions having round holes through which an ejecting tool is to be inserted is formed. Small holes for sprocket wheels are arranged along the side edges. Although this strip is used in a reeled state, it has become clear that the reeling method causes certain problems. That is, when unwound by a sprocket mechanism, etc., the strip is stretched "almost flat", but some "winding" is unavoidable and the original "strictly horizontal" posture is restored. The point is that it cannot be done. This causes a malfunction when the robot hand individually and accurately picks up an IC chip from the curled strip. As a countermeasure, it is conceivable to make the band as thin as possible so that it does not curl around the band, but in that case the band becomes fragile and damaged during use or handling,
It is not possible to expect complete protection for the precision parts to be contained. Of course, damage during use makes it impossible to carry out an accurate pick-up work by the robot hand. Further, in the field, the problem with the above-mentioned transport container (herein referred to as “tray”) is that a large space is required for storing, accumulating, and handling the tray, and that it requires manpower to replace the tray. However, it is not always easy to supply trays in any desired connected state, and baking is required depending on the type of IC chip, and the trays for that purpose are inevitably expensive, and at the time of container manufacturing. The task of connecting the trays is complicated, and so on.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve various drawbacks in the conventional container for conveying precision parts of vertical and horizontal plural rows type or vertical single row strip type type, such as an IC chip. A single container of the same shape having a concave portion suitable for individual housing is connected to form an infinite strip like a chain commonly used in the machinery industry, etc. And then
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a container for transporting precision parts, in which a molding process of a succeeding single body simultaneously develops a connecting structure capable of bending and stretching relative to the preceding single body. More specifically, the container unit provided with the recess for holding the IC chip in a non-swingable manner is connected to each other through the arms extending outward from the two opposite sides thereof so that they can be bent and stretched mutually. Reel winding operation itself is also easier than before, and a method capable of automatically and efficiently manufacturing a chain type container for transporting precision parts having a structure in which there is no possibility of winding curl when pulled out from the reel. For the purpose of provision. Further, the present invention can solve the above-mentioned various problems related to the "tray" all at once, and in particular, it is reasonably possible to use a synthetic resin of a material that can be baked in a state where an IC chip or the like is housed and the tray can be recycled thereafter. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a transport container.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] To achieve this purpose,
The method for manufacturing a chain container for transporting precision parts according to the present invention comprises a single container made of synthetic resin having a single or a plurality of recesses for accommodating an object to be transported, which is detached from the transport mechanism along at least one side edge. The preceding container unit, which is to form a strip-shaped body in which the engaging portions are provided at regular intervals over the entire length, is molded in the molding die cavity into a shape in which the arms project from the two sides A and B facing each other. As a result, the first step of forming a cylindrical small protrusion or a cylindrical hole parallel to the side A on the rear arm, taking out the preceding simple substance from the cavity, and making the tip of the rear side arm the leading side arm of the succeeding simple substance. The second step of placing in the cavity portion where the cavity is to be formed, the molten resin is injected into the cavity, and the tip of the succeeding single body front arm has a cylindrical shape that is relatively rotatably fitted into the small protrusion or hole. Young hole Characterized by repeating the third step in parallel to form to the side B of the small projections of the cylindrical, the city in this order.

When both the recess and the outer peripheral portion surrounding the recess are rectangular (square or rectangular),
One side A of two opposing sides A and B of a single container
It is desirable that the one side B of the other adjacent container alone keeps a close contact with each other regardless of whether they are bent or stretched. However, the depth, the shape in plan view, the size, and the like of the recess formed in the substantially central portion of each container should be determined according to the shape and size of the object to be conveyed, that is, the IC chip. is there. As an example, the size of the recess is about 15 mm square, the depth is 3 mm, and the outer contour excluding the arm portion is about 24 mm × 20 mm.

The shape of the recess in plan view is not limited to a rectangular shape, but may be an oval shape or a complicated polygonal shape. Also in this case, two arms are continuously provided on two parallel straight lines which are orthogonal to two opposite sides of the container having the concave portion, and a small protrusion is formed near the tip of the arm extended from one side. A hole that fits into the small protrusion is formed near the tip of the arm that is formed and extends from the other side, and the axial direction of the small protrusion and the hole must be parallel to the two sides and B.

The small holes that engage with the feed projections of the transport mechanism, for example, the circular small holes, form only one row along one side edge of the band-shaped body, or one side along both side edges.
Two rows in total may be formed. In one example of the arrangement of the small holes, circular small holes are bored at regular intervals in the intermediate portion distant from the facing sides A and B, and the small holes are provided at the locations where the facing sides intersect the side edges. A cutout having a shape obtained by dividing the hole into two is provided. As a result, when both sides A and B are in close contact with each other, both notches become a notch having a width equal to the diameter of one small hole, and the pitch of the small holes is deviated at the joint between the adjacent containers forming the strip. There is no such thing. However, opposite sides A and B
No cutout is provided at the "progress" portion, and the distance between the opposing side and the small hole closest thereto is set to 1/2 of the distance between two adjacent small holes. The pitch irregularity at the seam can be eliminated. The frame-feeding small hole does not necessarily have to be a hole, and may be a notched portion that is recessed from the side edge portion, or may be formed as a protrusion that protrudes downward, upward, or outward from the side edge portion. Well, the point is that it can be engaged with and disengaged from the feed projection of the transport mechanism.

At the center of the bottom of the recess, I
It is desirable to provide a vertical hole for passing an eject tool that projects the C-tip from the recess. If the vertical hole has a larger diameter than the small hole for feeding, the tip can be extruded with a sufficiently thick tool, and the hitting against the tip is softer than that with a thin tool, which is convenient.

Further, when there are "ear" -shaped outer protrusions on the outer periphery of the chip, a pair of "finger" -shaped protrusions for sandwiching and holding each of these protrusions should be provided upright from the bottom surface. Is desirable. If the bottom plate portion between the finger-like projections is punched out, this portion can be used similarly to the vertical hole for eject.

[0011]

Since the method for producing a chain type container of the present invention has the above-mentioned constitution, the container can be produced with high efficiency by using an appropriate synthetic resin such as polyoxymethylene resin (POM resin) or acetal carbon resin. It is also possible to automatically connect the individual containers during this manufacturing process. Therefore, the arms of the individual containers are connected to each other by fitting the small projections and the holes after the mold for forming the single container group. No post-operation is required. POM as an example of the molding material is
It is a very stable polyether type synthetic resin having a melting point of about 180 ° C and excellent chemical resistance.
After performing the above-mentioned first step of injecting at ℃, the second step of taking out the preceding simple substance from the cavity and placing the tip of the trailing arm into the cavity “part” where the leading arm of the succeeding simple substance is to be formed is performed. At the end of the process, the temperature of the preceding simple substance drops to about 40 ° C., which is slightly higher than room temperature. Therefore, the third injection of molten resin into the cavity next time from the gate located on the side opposite to the cavity "portion"
When the process is carried out, the temperature of the resin reaching the "portion" is slightly lower than the melting point, so to speak, it is in a supercooled state. Therefore, the resin of about 170 ° C., which should form the tip of the trailing single body front side arm, is pressed around the small protrusion of about 40 ° C. on the tip of the trailing single body rear arm inserted into the “part”. Even if filled, the heat of the latter does not remelt the former, and a cylindrical hole fitted in the small protrusion for relative rotation can be formed at the tip of the trailing single body front arm.
Immediately after the third step, even if the tip portions of both arms are half stuck together, they can be rotated relative to each other after bending a few degrees. In particular, a slight amount of the release agent or oil content on the inner surface of the mold cavity is attached to the surface of each part of the preceding single body, so that the two do not stick to each other.

The specific operation when using the container manufactured by the method of the present invention is no different from the case of the conventional band-shaped container. However, since the chain-type link connection structure between the individual containers facilitates the bending and extension between the adjacent individual containers, not only the reel winding work and the reel withdrawing work are easy, but also the conventional winding process. There is no risk of gusting. It is also possible to supply the chain type container into the baking apparatus for the chips while accommodating the IC chips and adjusting the chain length to any chain length if necessary.

[0013]

Embodiments of the method of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. First, a chain type container for conveying precision parts manufactured by the method will be briefly described with reference to FIG. This container is an injection molded product using the POM resin (that is, polyoxymethylene resin). This chain type container has a strip-shaped body in which a large number of recesses (11) for individually accommodating IC chips (small integrated circuits formed on a substrate) as an example of an object to be conveyed are formed in a line, and a frame of a conveying mechanism is formed. Small holes (14) as engaging portions that engage with and disengage from the feeding portion (not shown) are formed along the one side edge (12) at regular intervals over the entire length.

Each container unit (10) may have a plurality of recesses of “m number × n rows”, but in this example, each unit unit (10) has a width of 2 to 4 mm at the center thereof. The entire area surrounded by the peripheral flange-shaped portion (15) constitutes one recess (11) which is recessed downward in the drawing. On the two opposite sides A and B of the single container (10), the wall (1
From 6) and (17), two arms (21), (21) or (23), (23) are connected in series along two straight lines L and M parallel to each other and orthogonal to the two sides. There is. These arms are provided as a means for forming a connecting portion between the container units (10) and (10) as described later, and the arm (21) is located on the rear side (or the head side) in the unit connecting direction. However, the other arm (23) is located on the head side (or the tail side).

In the vicinity of the tip of the short arm (21) projecting outward from one side A, a small columnar small projection (22) having a round tip is formed in a direction perpendicular to the short arm (21) and in the opposite directions. It is formed integrally. Correspondingly, in the vicinity of the tip of the arm (23) protruding outward from the other side B, the small projection (22) is a lateral hole (which is to be slidably fitted in the rotational direction). 24) has been formed. In this example, small protrusions (22) and holes
The diameter of each (24) is about 1.2 mm. Through the small projections (22) and the holes (24) that fit in this way, the arm (2
1) and (23) are connected so as to be capable of relative refraction and extension, and constitute the above-mentioned connecting portion.

The distance between the center line of the small projection (22) and the center line of the hole (24) arranged near one side edge (12) of the strip is the other side edge ( The small protrusion (22) closer to 13)
Since it is equal to the distance between the center line and the center line of the hole (24), it can be flexed and stretched between two adjacent container units (10), (10). The notch indicated by reference numeral (19) in FIG. 1 is a complementary shape of the adjacent simple substance (10) at the corner portion where the side A or side B and the edge (12) or (13) intersect as described above. A similar notch is abutted to form a notch with a width equal to the diameter of the stoma (14) and serves as one of the stoma. That is, since the notch is formed at the joint, the feed hole (corresponding to the small hole (14)) of the chain type container is also formed between the adjacent single containers.

In the case of this example, the IC chip (40), which is an example of an object to be conveyed, has a square shape, and a plurality of input / output pins (41) project from the four sides thereof. The chip (40) is housed in the recess (11) as indicated by the chained arrow Y in FIG. At this time, the bent tip of the pin (41) is
6), (17) is contacted with the inner surface, but the chip body (42)
The outer peripheral edge of the is closely contacted with the inner surface of the small protrusions (31) standing upright along the four sides from the bottom of the recess. After that, a protective film is laid over and attached to the four-sided flange-shaped portion (15), which protects the contained object from dust and the like while handling the band-shaped chain-shaped container and also forms a recess (11 This is to prevent accidental dropouts from). In this state, the chain type container containing a large number of chips is wound around a reel (not shown) in an annular shape while being refracted between the individual units, and this reel is supplied to a required place near the manufacturing line or the processing line. It Then, at this point, the band-shaped bodies that are bent between the individual containers are drawn out sequentially from the leading side so as to assume the extended posture included in the same plane. At the predetermined position after extension, the chip is transferred to the required processing station etc. by an appropriate robot hand etc. while being pushed out of the recess (11) by the ejector tool inserted from the round hole (32) in the center of the bottom. It That is, in a so-called "mounting machine" that seals with a cover tape (protective film), winds a device such as an IC chip on a reel, and mounts the device on a circuit board, each device is ejector pin one by one. It sticks out with.

The method of the present invention will be described below. Figure 2
Is the situation from the first step to the second step, that is,
As an example, polyoxymethylene resin (P
OM resin) is melted at about 190 ° C and the female (43) and male (4)
4 shows a container (10) for the front side, which is injected into the cavity (45) of the molding die consisting of (4) and cooled to a temperature below the melting point, and then the molding die is opened and taken out. This simple substance (10) is as shown in FIG.
Arms (21) and (23) are projected from two opposite sides A and B, respectively, and a cylindrical small protrusion (22) parallel to side A is provided on the leading arms (21) and (21). Are formed in the opposite directions, and holes (24) parallel to the other side B are formed in the rear arms (23), (23). 2 to 4, the left side is the leading side.

FIG. 3 shows the situation from the second step to the third step. That is, the rear arms (23) and (23) of the front side container unit (10), which is obtained by opening the mold and taking it out, are
FIG. 3 shows a state in which the mold is closed again after being placed in the front side protruding portion (46) of (45). Following this, the third
Carry out the process. That is, when the molten POM resin is injected from the gate (47) into the cavity (45) to form the succeeding single body (10), the tip of the leading arm is automatically and simultaneously formed into the cylindrical shape described above. An arm (21) having a cylindrical small protrusion (22) fitted in the hole (24) so as to be rotatable relative to the hole (24) is formed as shown in FIG.

Since the gate (47) is provided at a position farthest from the cavity portion (46), the molten resin reaching the portion (46) reaches the melting point or slightly lower than the melting point. Since the temperature has dropped to about 0 ° C., there is no possibility that the front side arm of the rear side single body will be fused to the rear side arm of the already formed front side single body.

Although the embodiments considered to be typical of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the structures of these embodiments, and has the above-mentioned constitutional requirements and achieves the above-mentioned object. However, it can be appropriately modified and carried out as long as it has the following effects. For example, the head arm (21) is provided with a hole (24) instead of the small projection, and correspondingly, the rear arm (23) is fitted with a small projection (22) rotatably fitted in the hole. ) May be provided. Also,
The small protrusions (22), (22) may be formed to face each other, and may further have a T-shaped tip.

[0022]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a container made of a synthetic resin having sufficient strength is successively molded, and the molding process of the succeeding unit is simultaneously performed as the preceding unit. Since a method for producing a chain-like band for a container for transporting precision parts that provides a relatively flexible and flexible connecting structure is provided,
There is no need to perform a "renew" connection process after the molding process, which not only significantly improves productivity but also has a band shape that is significantly superior in connection strength and reliability compared to the elastic fitting type connection structure. The body can be manufactured. In this way, there is provided a container made of a chain-shaped strip made up of a large number of single containers which can be bent and stretched freely, but which may not cause unexpected disassembly. Therefore, even when the strip is swirled on a reel or the like or is stretched flat, each unit does not have an undesired deformation. There is no fear of remaining. Therefore, the container according to the present invention is extremely suitable as a carrying container for IC chips and the like, which requires careful handling and requires precise positioning at the carrying destination. In short, it is possible to connect a large number of rigid single containers each having a pocket so that they can be wound on a reel, and to extend them without curling, while supplying the accommodated device to a mounting machine that requires precision.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a single container as one frame in a chained container manufactured by the method of the present invention together with an object to be contained.

FIG. 2 is an exploded cross-sectional view showing the first step of the method of the present invention along the line IV-IV in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a second step of the same.

FIG. 4 is a plan view similarly showing a third step.

[Explanation of symbols]

(10) Container unit (11) Recess (12) One side edge (13) Other side edge (14) Small hole (15) Inner groove-like recess (21) A pair of protruding from one side A facing each other. Arm (22) Small protrusion (23) Another pair of arms protruding from the opposite side B (24) Hole (40) IC chip (45) Cavity (46) Cavity (L) One straight line (M) that intersects sides A and B near one side edge (12) and another straight line that intersects sides A and B near another side edge (13) and that is parallel to straight line L

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Synthetic resin container units (10), (10) having a recess (11) for accommodating one or a plurality of objects to be conveyed are arranged in a line, and at least one side edge (12) or ( In the process for producing a belt-shaped body in which engaging portions (14) engaging with and disengaging from the transport mechanism are provided along the length of 13) at regular intervals over the entire length, the preceding container simple substance (10) is divided into two sides A and two sides facing each other. Arm from B (2
Mold cavities (45) with 1) and (23) protruding
By molding inside, the rear arm (21), (21) has a cylindrical small protrusion (22) or a cylindrical hole (24) parallel to the side A.
In the first step of forming the first unit, the leading unit is taken out of the cavity, and the leading unit of the trailing unit is moved into the cavity portion (46) where the leading arms (23) and (23) of the trailing unit (10) are to be formed. In the second step of mounting, the molten resin is injected into the cavity, and the small protrusions (22) are provided at the tip of the succeeding single body front side arm.
Alternatively, a cylindrical hole (2
4) Or the third step of forming the cylindrical small protrusions (22) in parallel to the side B, and this step are repeated in this order, to manufacture a chain container for conveying precision parts.