JPH07172603A - Charging machine for printed circuit board - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To separate printed circuit boards one by one securely and also prevent these boards from making contact with each other and being damaged by sucking and transporting the boards from a rack to a substrate transporting route and injecting air toward the rear of the transported circuit boards. CONSTITUTION:A charging machine 100 charges many printed circuit boards 70 rested against a rack 20 one by one into a substrate transporting route 40 connected to the next process. In this case, a sucking device 50 which moves reciprocatedly between the start end of the substrate transporting route 40 and the rack 20 is arranged at the start end of the substrate transporting route 40, and the printed circuit boards 70 are sucked and transported from the rack 20 to the substrate transporting route 40. Also a nozzle 60 is arranged under the sucking device 50, air is injected toward the rear of the printed circuit boards 70 transported into the substrate transporting route 40. Thus the printed circuit boards 70 can be charged into transporting route to the next process without damaging the printed circuit boards 70.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is arranged in a line for continuously producing a printed wiring board by subjecting the printed wiring board to various processes such as plating and washing, and performing the next process. The present invention relates to a loading machine for loading a printed wiring board continuously.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to perform various processes such as plating on a printed wiring board to form a printed wiring board, the printed wiring board is continuously placed in various devices such as a plating device, a washing device and a drying device. Must be supplied to. These various devices are often configured by themselves,
In order to arrange these in various types and configure them as one line, it is naturally necessary to provide a device for bridging between the devices. A part of this bridging work is an input machine that is the subject of the present invention.

The loading machine has an important function of loading a printed wiring board, which is to be a printed wiring board, one by one onto a conveying path connected to the next process, but in recent years, it has various forms. Some have even been proposed and used.

For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-188241 discloses that, as shown in FIG. 5, "a rubber pad for adsorbing a plate material is linked to an attachment tool and the attachment tool is lifted from a substantially vertical state. 2. Description of the Related Art "A plate material conveying carriage characterized by having a drive chain for horizontally displacing motion and a guide device" (hereinafter referred to as "prior art 1") has been proposed.

In Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 57-62732, as shown in FIG. 6, "In a device for grabbing only the uppermost one of the laminated thin plate members, the device is supported by a column and moved up and down. And a horizontally movable arm, which is rotatably supported by a pivot shaft with respect to the arm, and the inner surface facing each other is a sliding inclined surface that spreads downward, and the end of the inclined surface. An automatic gripper having at least a pair of claws provided with a groove and a spring device for urging the claws in a closing direction has been proposed (hereinafter referred to as prior art 2).

Furthermore, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-16431 discloses, as shown in FIG. 7, "a plurality of stacked thin plate materials 1
From the above, in the thin plate material supplying device for supplying the thin plate materials 1 one by one, the plurality of thin plate materials 1 are stacked in the posture inclined downward to the leading end of the supply direction, and the stacking table 2 and the stacking table 2 are movable up and down. The guide plate 15 which is in contact with the front end of the thin plate material 1 and is obliquely erected, and the uppermost thin plate material 1'of the thin plate materials 1 loaded on the loading table 2 are located at substantially the same position as the upper end of the guide plate 15. 16 to detect that
And a suction member 4 for vacuum-sucking the vicinity of the tip of the upper surface of the thin plate material 1 ′ located at the top and lifting the thin plate material 1 ′.
And the thin plate material 1 ′ lifted by this suction member
A plate 17 having a notch shape with a comb tooth on the lower side is inserted between the other thin plate materials 1 and substantially parallel to the stacked thin plate materials 1, and the thin plate material 1 ′ is placed on the plate 17. There has been proposed a thin plate material feeding device (hereinafter referred to as prior art 3) that includes a transfer member 23 for transferring the sheet and a plurality of endless belts 7 that are inserted into the notches of the plate 17.

[0007] These prior arts 1 to 3 can insert the printed wiring boards one by one into a necessary place, and in that sense, they can be said to be excellent inserting machines. However, in recent printed wiring boards, in order to support high-mix low-volume production of equipment using the printed wiring boards, even if the printed wiring boards are of a certain size, various forms such as wiring are formed on the surface thereof. The size of the printed wiring board is different, and the size of the entire printed wiring board is also different. Depending on the above-mentioned prior arts 1 to 3, it may not be possible to insert the printed wiring board in a short time due to the following reasons.

First, according to the prior art 1, as shown in FIG. 5, both the upper and lower parts of the printed wiring board must be sucked and lifted by the rubber pads for suction. If it is half of what is shown, the rubber pad must be repositioned. Not only that, the fixture with both rubber pads attached has one structure where one end is attached to the drive chain side and the other end is guided by a guide device.
Even if the printed wiring board becomes half of that shown in FIG. 5, the time required for the horizontal displacement movement cannot be shortened.

Further, in the prior art 2 shown in FIG. 6, since the gripped printed wiring board is inserted by rotating the arm and moving up and down, even if the shape of the printed wiring board changes. Although it is not a very important issue to shorten the closing time, the adjustment of the dimensions between the pawls pivotally supported by the arm via the pivot axis requires that the shape of the printed wiring board to be thrown changes. If so, it must be done. For this reason, if the position adjustment between the pivots that pivotally support each claw cannot be performed, the automatic gripper of the prior art 2 cannot operate at all when the size of the printed wiring board changes. become.

From the above point of view, the prior art 3 shown in FIG. 7 does not need to adjust the positions of the rubber pad and the gripping claws, so that it can sufficiently cope with the size change of the printed wiring board. , The following problems remain.

That is, as described in FIG. 8 and the fifth column of the above publication, this "thin sheet material feeding device" is such that "the suction member 4 swings counterclockwise to move the thin sheet material 1 '. , The thin plate member 1'is lifted as shown in Fig. 8A while the opposite side of the suction member 4 is in contact with the laminated thin plate member 1. Next, the guide shaft 19 is rotated to move the plate 17 to the upper right direction. And one side is inserted between the lifted thin plate material 1'and the other laminated thin plate materials 1. The plate 17 is made of Teflon or the like so as not to scratch the surface of the thin plate material 1 '. Use a material with less friction.
After being inserted under the thin plate material 1 ', the thin plate material 1'is placed on the plate 17 when the suction of the suction portion 4 is released by a solenoid valve or the like (not shown) (FIG. 8B). Next, if the plate 17 is moved to the lower left, the cutout portion of the plate 17 will move to the endless belt 7.
The right end portion of the thin plate material 1 ′ rides on the endless belt 7 while the right end portion of the thin plate material 1 ′ slides on the plate 17 and is transferred to the endless belt 7 and conveyed (FIG. 8 (C)). First, the "plate 17" is a thin plate material such as the printed wiring board 70.
It must be scratched. Conversely, since the "plate 17" is inserted between the printed wiring boards 70, it is easy to scratch the printed wiring board 70 when the "plate 17" is inserted.

Moreover, the "plate 17" in this "thin plate material feeding device" is retracted with the printed wiring board 70 placed thereon, and the lower end (left end in FIG. 8) of the printed wiring board 70 is conveyed. It must be possible to move it to a position where it makes full contact with the belt, and this "plate 17" and the conveyor belt must cross completely somewhere. Since it is not explicitly stated, it cannot be used as it is for a throwing machine as intended by the present invention.

Further, the greatest difficulty of this prior art 3 is that
Even when the printed wiring board 70 becomes half the size shown in FIG. 8, the amount of movement of the “plate 17” does not change. In other words, the end portion of the printed wiring board 70 sucked by the "suction member 4" must be moved as it is onto the conveyor belt, so that the work time when the shape of the printed wiring board 70 becomes small is reduced. It cannot be shortened.

Therefore, the inventor of the present invention has developed the printed wiring board 7
0 can be input without any damage to the printed wiring board 70, and if the printed wiring board 70 becomes smaller, various studies will be repeated on how to shorten the input time accordingly. As a result, the present invention has been completed.

[0015]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and the problem to be solved is to improve the efficiency of inputting the printed wiring board 70.

It is an object of the present invention that the printed wiring board 70 can be put into the conveyance path for the next step without damaging the printed wiring board 70, as a matter of course. Inserter 100 capable of shortening the working time according to the change of the shape of
To provide a simple structure.

[0017]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the means adopted by the present invention will be described with reference to the reference numerals used in the embodiments. This is a loading machine that loads a large number of printed wiring boards 70 one by one onto a board transfer path 40 connected to the next processing step, and reciprocates between the rack 20 and the start end of the board transfer path 40. Therefore, a suction device 50, which is provided on the starting end side of the substrate transport path 40, suctions the lower portion of the printed wiring board 70 on the rack 20 and moves it onto the substrate transport path 40, and is arranged below the suction device 50. And a nozzle 60 for injecting air toward the back surface side of the printed wiring board 70, the lower portion of which has been moved onto the board transport path 40.

That is, the loading machine 100 according to the present invention is
Printed wiring board 7 leaning against rack 20
The lower part of 0 is adsorbed by the adsorbing device 50 and thrown into the substrate transport path 40. At that time, air is jetted from the nozzle 60 to separate the printed wiring boards 70 one by one. At the same time, the one printed wiring board 70 taken out can be prevented from contacting the other printed wiring boards 70, whereby the printed wiring boards 70 can be inserted one by one without being scratched. .

[0019]

The operation of the throwing machine 100 according to the present invention constructed as above will be described with reference to FIGS.
First, as shown in FIG. 1, the rack 20 on which a large number of printed wiring boards 70 are mounted is carried to the loading machine 100 by the rack transport path 10 in a leaning state. Note that the printed wiring board 70 is received in the rack 20 in advance by another device (not shown).

The rack 20 is in a predetermined position, that is, the loading machine 1
When it is located at the front end of the substrate transport path 40 of 00, the limit switch (not shown) is activated to stop the drive of the rack transport path 10 and the printed wiring board 70 on the rack 20 is attracted by the suction device 50. stand by. Then, the suction device 50 moves toward the first printed wiring board 70 as shown in FIG.
The lower part of 0 is adsorbed, and the adsorption device 50 starts to move to the substrate transfer path 40 side.

In the loading machine 100 of the embodiment described below, the separation roller 30 is arranged between the rack 20 and the front end of the substrate transfer path 40 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
When the lower end of the printed wiring board 70 moves on the separating roller 30, the printed wiring boards 70 are separated one by one together with the air from the nozzle 60 described below. That is, after all, various holes such as through holes and reference holes are often formed in each printed wiring board 70, and air is sucked by the operation of the suction device 50 through these holes, and the second printed wiring board is There is a possibility that the suction of 70 is also performed, and there is a possibility that two or more printed wiring boards 70 are sucked by the suction device 50. In such a case, the separation roller 30 is configured so that only one printed wiring board 70 can ride on it.
The next separation of the printed wiring board 70 is positively performed by a certain amount of impact when the first printed wiring board 70 runs on.

Now, the first printed wiring board 70 is
When the air passes over the separation roller 30 while being sucked by the suction device 50, a limit switch (not shown) detects this and air is temporarily or continuously jetted from the nozzle 60 as shown in FIG. As a result, the first printed wiring board 70 is completely separated from the others, and the upper end of the printed wiring board 70 is temporarily floated as shown in FIG. During this time,
Since the suction device 50 continues to move toward the substrate transfer path 40, the lower end of the printed wiring board 70 is mounted on the substrate transfer path 40 as shown in FIG. Thus, the upper end does not come into contact with another printed wiring board 70 waiting next.

Moreover, during this period, the substrate transfer path 4
Since 0 is in the carrying state, the substrate carrying path 40
The printed wiring board 70, the lower end of which contacts the upper side, is conveyed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. And the printed wiring board 7
When 0 is transported in the state as shown in FIG. 4, the upper end of the printed wiring board 70 falls onto the substrate transport path 40 without contacting another printed wiring board 70.

Here, if the size of the printed wiring board 70 is half that shown in the figure, in the loading machine 100 of the present invention, the suction of the printed wiring board 70 by the suction device 50 causes the printed wiring board 70 to be sucked. Since it is performed at the lower end portion of the printed wiring board 70, even if the size of the printed wiring board 70 changes, the introduction of the printed wiring board 70 into the board transfer path 40 side is within a short time regardless of the change in the size of the printed wiring board 70. It is done. That is, even if the type of the printed wiring board 70 changes, the input to the next process can be performed efficiently.

In this embodiment, for example, a sensor utilizing light is arranged between the front end of the board conveying path 40 and the separation roller 30, and this sensor allows the rear end of the printed wiring board 70 on the board conveying path 40 to be separated. When the passage of the portion (the right end portion in FIG. 4) is detected, the suction device 50 is operated to return to the state shown in FIG. 1, and the second printed wiring board 7
That is, it goes to a zero-loading operation. Therefore, if the size of the printed wiring board 70 is about half of that shown in FIG. 1 and the like, the detection by the sensor is performed within a short time according to the shape of the printed wiring board 70. The device 50 is immediately restored, and the above-described closing operation is performed in a short cycle.

[0026]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a side view of a throwing machine 100 according to the present invention. It is the previous processing step (apparatus), and the left side of the drawing is the next processing step (apparatus). That is, this inserter 100
Are arranged at various places in a line where each printed wiring board 70 is subjected to various processes to form a printed wiring board.

The loading machine 100 is basically provided on the starting end side of the substrate transfer path 40 so as to reciprocate between the rack 20 and the starting end part of the substrate transfer path 40. An adsorption device 50 that adsorbs to the lower part of the substrate 70 and moves it onto the substrate transfer path 40, and the adsorption device 50.
A nozzle 60 that is arranged below the nozzle and injects air toward the back surface side of the printed wiring board 70 whose lower portion is moved onto the board transport path 40. Further, the loading machine 100 is provided with the rack transport path 10,
The rack transport path 10 supplies the rack 20 on which a large number of printed wiring boards 70 are mounted in a leaning state to a predetermined position.

The rack 20 includes a large number of printed wiring boards 7
Since 0 is supported in a leaning state, it is formed as a substantially L-shape as shown in FIG. 1 and the like, and its support base 21 is an inclined surface. In addition, an opening 22 is formed in the center of the support base 21 of the rack 20.
Is formed, and each printed wiring board 70 is provided with the opening 2
It is placed on the support base 21 while straddling two. The openings 22 are reduced as the printed wiring boards 70 on the support 21 are sequentially loaded onto the board transfer path 40, and will be described later when the rack transfer path 10 is driven little by little to advance the rack 20. This is to prevent interference with the nozzle 60 and the like.

In the loading machine 100 of this embodiment, the rack 2 supplied by the rack transport path 10 is used.
0 and the front end portion of the substrate transfer path 40 described later, the separation roller 30 is arranged.
The lower end of each printed wiring board 70 sucked by the suction device 50 gets over the zero. The separating roller 30 may be freely rolling, but in the present embodiment, the separating roller 30 is fixedly arranged with the support shaft arranged at an eccentric position. That is, the separation roller 30 is mounted on the single printed wiring board 70 on which the separation roller 30 is mounted.
It is fixed so that it will not be dragged and rotated by it, and by supporting it eccentrically, the height of its upper surface position can be freely adjusted. In other words, the separation roller 30 performs an auxiliary operation for separating the second and subsequent printed wiring boards 70 that try to get over them. Further, a nozzle 60, which will be described later, is arranged in the vicinity of the separation roller 30, but in order to prevent the separation roller 30 from interfering with the nozzle 60, the separation roller 30 is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG.

The adsorption device 50 is the same as the prior art 1 mentioned at the outset.
It is the same as the rubber pad used in, for example, and is swingably provided with respect to a machine frame (not shown) of the inserting machine 100. Further, since the suction device 50 sucks the air to suck the printed wiring board 70, an air suction device (not shown) is connected to the suction device 50, and the air suction device operates. Is controlled by a signal from a limit switch, a sensor or the like (not shown). In this embodiment, the suction device 50 is swingably attached to a machine frame (not shown) that is laid over the front end portion of the substrate transfer path 40, and the swing range is shown in FIG. It is within a range in which the vehicle can move backward from the open position to the position shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the nozzle 60 is arranged in the immediate vicinity of the separation roller 30 and injects air upward in the drawing at this position. This nozzle 60
However, in the present embodiment, air is supplied from the exhaust port of the air suction device connected to the adsorption device 50 described above. Of course, the air may be supplied to the nozzle 60 by an air supply device separate from the air suction device.

Further, the nozzle 60 is used for the separation roller 30.
It is advisable to form a plurality of missing portions in the axial direction and to arrange a plurality of missing portions. The separation roller 30 is, as described above, the printed wiring board 70.
However, even if a missing portion is provided in this case, if the missing portion is within the width of one printed wiring board 70, the function of the separating roller 30 itself can be achieved. Each nozzle 60 is not damaged.
It is possible to effectively exert the separating action of the printed wiring board 70 by arranging the above-mentioned separators closer to the separating roller 30. Moreover, if there are a plurality of nozzles 60 below each printed wiring board 70, the printed wiring board 70 can be separated by the nozzles 60 and the printed wiring board 7 can be separated.
It is possible to reliably form the floating state of the printed wiring board 70 when the lower end of 0 is placed on the board transport path 40.

The injection of air from each nozzle 60 is
The operation may be performed continuously during the operation of the charging machine 100, or the printed wiring board 70 may be attached to the suction device 50.
It may be temporarily carried out when it is moved to the front end portion of the substrate transfer path 40 by. When the injection by each nozzle 60 is performed continuously, it is advantageous in that the configuration of the air supply device for the nozzle 60 can be simplified, and the injection of air by each nozzle 60 is performed intermittently. In this case, it is advantageous in that energy for air supply can be saved, and which one should be adopted may be determined by weighing the merits of both.

[0034]

As described above in detail, in the present invention,
As illustrated in the above-described embodiment, "a loading machine that loads a large number of the printed wiring boards 70 stored in a leaning state on the rack 20 onto the board transport path 40 connected to the next processing step and the like one by one. Yes, on the rack 20 and substrate transfer path 40
A suction device 50 which is provided on the starting end side of the substrate transfer path 40 so as to reciprocate between the starting end parts of the substrate and the lower part of the printed wiring board 70 on the rack 20 and moves it onto the substrate transfer path 40. The printed wiring board 7 which is arranged below the suction device 50 and whose lower portion is moved onto the substrate transport path 40.
It has a nozzle 60 for injecting air toward the back side of the printed wiring board 70. ”As a result, the printed wiring board 70 can be inserted into the transport path to the next step. It is of course possible to provide the insertion machine 100 having a simple structure, which can be performed without being scratched, and can shorten the working time according to the change in the shape of the printed wiring board 70.

That is, according to the loading machine 100 of the present invention, when loading each printed wiring board 70 from the rack 20 onto the board transport path 40, each printed wiring board 70 is loaded.
The printed wiring board 70 can be lifted by blowing air from the nozzle 60 to the printed wiring board 70, which prevents the printed wiring board 70 from contacting another printed wiring board 70 or the like. Thus, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of scratches when the printed wiring boards 70 are turned on. Moreover,
Each nozzle 6 is attached to both front and back surfaces of each printed wiring board 70.
By blowing the air from 0, there is also an effect that air cleaning of removing dust adhering to each printed wiring board 70 is secondarily performed on each printed wiring board 70.

Further, according to the loading machine 100, the suction of the printed wiring board 70 by the suction device 50 is performed at the lower end portion of the printed wiring board 70, so that the size of the printed wiring board 70 changes. However, the substrate can be introduced into the substrate transport path 40 in a short time regardless of the change in size of the printed wiring board 70, and even if the type of the printed wiring board 70 changes, the next step It can be efficiently put into.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a charging machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of the loading machine when the printed wiring board is about to ride on a separation roller.

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the same inserting machine when a nozzle operates.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a state immediately before the printed wiring board is placed on a board conveying path in the same inserting machine, (a) is a schematic side view thereof, and (b) a plane of the separation roller and the nozzle used here. It is a figure.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing prior art 1.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a related art 2.

FIG. 7 is a side view showing prior art 3.

FIG. 8 is a side view showing the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 7 step by step.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 loading machine 10 rack transport path 20 rack 21 support stand 22 opening 30 separation roller 40 substrate transport path 50 adsorption device 60 nozzle 70 printed wiring board

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A loading machine for loading a large number of printed wiring boards, which are stored in a leaning state on a rack, onto a board transporting path connected to a subsequent processing step, the loading machine comprising: An adsorbing device which is provided on the starting end side of the substrate transfer path so as to reciprocate between the starting ends of the paths, and which adsorbs to the lower part of the printed wiring board on the rack and moves it onto the substrate transfer path. A nozzle for ejecting air toward the back surface side of the printed wiring board, the lower portion of which is arranged on the substrate transport path, the nozzle being disposed below the device, and the insertion machine for the printed wiring board.