JPH0721317Y2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for printing desired characters, such as alphabets and numbers, on a printed circuit board that is sequentially conveyed in-line, and is particularly desired with a simple and low-cost structure. It relates to a device designed so that the characters of can be printed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a manufacturing line for manufacturing printed circuit boards, each printed circuit board may be engraved or printed with a manufacturing number consisting of letters or numbers or a management number for product management. A variety of marking devices and printing devices are used for marking or printing characters of this type. For example, a laser type printer is known as a printer.

[0003]

The above-mentioned conventional configuration has the following problems. First, there is a problem that any marking device or printing device has a complicated structure, requires a large installation space, and is expensive.

The present invention has been made on the basis of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus capable of performing predetermined printing on an object to be printed with a relatively simple structure. Especially.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a printing apparatus according to the present invention comprises an apparatus main body and an ascending / descending unit which is attached to the apparatus main body so as to be able to ascend / descend in a vertical Z direction. A table, a Y-direction movable table attached to the elevating table so as to be movable in a horizontal Y-direction and moved by Y-direction driving means, and a horizontal X-direction orthogonal to the Y-direction movable table. An X-direction moving base that is mounted so that it can be moved by the X-direction driving means, and a second Z that is mounted to the X-direction moving base so as to be movable up and down
The printing pen which is lifted up and down by the direction driving means and detachable, the cap means which is attached to the main body of the apparatus and covers the tip of the printing pen with a cap when the apparatus is not in operation, and each of the above-mentioned mechanical parts by inputting an external signal. And a control unit that drives the printed object to print a predetermined character.

At this time, it is conceivable that the control means inputs a plurality of print command signals and performs printing corresponding to each print command on the object to be printed. Further, it is conceivable that the cap of the cap means is internally provided with an O-ring so as to maintain high airtightness when the cap is capped on the tip of the printing pen by the O-ring. further,
A printed circuit board that is conveyed inline is expected as the print target.

[0007]

First, when the printing pen is not in operation, the printing pen is positioned at the standby position, and the tip of the printing pen is capped by the cap means. In that state, when an external signal is input to the control means, first, the cap means is driven to separate the cap from the printing pen. Then, by driving the first and second Z-direction driving means, the Y-direction driving means, and the X-direction driving means to move the printing pen, the printing pen performs predetermined printing on the object to be printed. When the predetermined printing is completed, the first and second Z-direction driving means, the Y-direction driving means, and the X-direction driving means are driven to make the printing pen stand by to the standby position, and the cap means is driven to move the cap to the printing pen. Crown the tip of.

It is expected that a plurality of types of external command signals will be input to the control means, and in that case, different printing can be performed corresponding to each type of external command signal. Further, when the cap is equipped with an O-ring, high airtightness can be maintained when the cap of the printing pen is capped, and in particular, when the printing pen is oily, volatilization thereof is effective. Can be prevented. Further, when a printed circuit board is assumed as an object to be printed, a printing device can be incorporated in the manufacturing line of the printed circuit board to perform predetermined printing on the printed circuit boards that are sequentially conveyed.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, there is an apparatus body 1, and as shown in the figure, the apparatus body 1 is in the form of a horizontally arranged plate. An elevating table 3 is arranged below the apparatus body 1 so as to be able to elevate. The lift table 3 is moved up and down in the vertical Z direction by an air cylinder mechanism 5 as a first Z direction drive means attached to the apparatus body 1.

The air cylinder mechanism 5 includes a cylinder 7
And the rod 9 and the like, and the lifting table 3 is connected and fixed to the tip of the rod 9. By appropriately supplying / discharging air to / from the cylinder 7, the rod 9
Are raised and lowered, whereby the lifting platform 3 is raised and lowered in the Z direction. Further, the lifting table 3 is guided by the four guide mechanisms 11 when moving up and down.

The guide mechanism 11 is composed of a hollow guide pipe 13 attached to a corner of the apparatus main body 1, and a guide shaft 15 inserted through the guide pipe 13. The guide shaft 15 is the device body 1
It is connected and fixed to the lifting table 3 through the. Lift 3
When moving up and down, the guide shaft 15 reciprocates along the guide pipe 13, thereby guiding the up-and-down movement of the up-and-down table 3. A stopper 17 is attached to the upper end of the guide shaft 15, and the stopper 17 comes into contact with the upper end of the guide pipe 13 to prevent the elevator table 3 from further descending.

On the lower surface side of the lifting table 3, the Y-direction moving table 1 is provided.
9 is arranged, and the Y-direction moving table 19 is adapted to reciprocate in the horizontal Y-direction by the Y-direction driving means 21. The Y-direction drive means 21 is a drive motor 2
3, a drive pulley 25 is fixed to the rotary shaft of the drive motor 23. A driven pulley 27 is arranged at a position facing the drive pulley 25, and a belt 29 is wound around the drive pulley 25 and the driven pulley 27. The Y direction moving table 19 is provided with this belt 29.
It is fixed to. Therefore, by rotating the drive motor 23 in an appropriate direction, the Y-direction moving table 19 reciprocates in the Y direction via the drive pulley 25, the driven pulley 27, and the belt 29. The Y-direction moving table 19 is guided by the guide shafts 30 and 32 when moving.

An X-direction moving table 31 is attached to the Y-direction moving table 19 so as to be capable of reciprocating in a horizontal X-direction orthogonal to the Y-direction. The X-direction moving table 31 is driven by the X-direction driving means 33. The X-direction drive means 33 includes a drive motor 35, and a drive pulley 37 is fixedly attached to the rotation shaft of the drive motor 35. A driven pulley 39 is installed at a position facing the drive pulley 37, and a belt 41 is wound around the drive pulley 37 and the driven pulley 39. The X-direction moving base 31 is fixed to the belt 41. Therefore, the drive motor 3
By rotating 5 in the appropriate direction, the drive pulley 3
The X-direction moving base 31 reciprocates in the X-direction via the 7, the driven pulley 39, and the belt 41. When the X-direction moving table 31 reciprocates, the guide shafts 43, 45
Guided by.

An air cylinder mechanism 47 as a second Z-direction driving means is attached to the X-direction moving table 31. The air cylinder mechanism 47 is composed of a cylinder 49 and a rod 51, and a pen holder 53 having a substantially L shape is attached to the rod 51. A printing pen 55 is detachably attached to the Ben holder 53. The printing pen 55 is oil-based and prints predetermined characters on a printed circuit board 76 (shown in FIG. 4) described later.

Cap means 57 is installed near the printing pen 55. First, two shafts 59 and 61 are attached to the apparatus main body 1, and these two shafts 59 and 61 are extended downward by a predetermined length. The lower ends of the two shafts 59 and 61 are L-shaped.
The L-shaped member 63 is attached to the L-shaped member 63.
A rotary cylinder mechanism 65 is attached to.
A support member 67 is attached to the rotary cylinder mechanism 65, and a cap 69 is fixed to the support member 67 in an upward state. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, by appropriately driving the rotary cylinder mechanism 65, the support member 67 is rotated in the vertical direction,
The cap 69 is capped on or removed from the printing pen 55.

An O-ring 71 is mounted on the cap 69 as shown in FIG. This is for preventing the volatilization of the printing pen 55 by maintaining a higher airtight state when the cap 69 is capped on the tip of the printing pen 55. In addition, the apparatus main body 1 which has already been described is shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. Further, a conveyor means 75 is installed below the fixed frame 73 to receive a printed circuit board 76 conveyed from another position in the printed circuit board manufacturing line, and perform a predetermined printing there to another position. To carry out.

The printing apparatus according to this embodiment is shown in FIGS.
Is provided (the operation panel 77 corresponds to a control means). A setting key 79 and a display unit 81 are installed on the front surface of the operation panel 77. Setting key 79 above
Is a "setting" key and "number" from "0" to "9"
It is composed of a key, an "alphabet" key, left and right "arrow" keys, an "ENT" key, a "CLR" key and the like. Further, on the upper surface of the operation panel 77, from the left side in the drawing, the mechanical connection connector 83, the GND connection terminal 85,
Preliminary connection terminal 87, print end connection terminal 89, emergency stop connection terminal 91, print start I connection terminal 93, print start II connection terminal 95, RS-232C connection terminal 97, power switch 99, fuse 101, AC100V power supply connection portion 103
Is installed. In the above-mentioned printed circuit board manufacturing line, there is a part for judging whether the manufactured printed board 76 is good or bad, and the two signal cables arranged by this judging means are the print start I connection terminals 93, Start printing II
It is connected to the connection terminal 95. Further, the RS-232C connection terminal 97 is for transmitting / receiving a signal to / from another control means such as a personal computer.

In the case of this embodiment, two print start commands are input to perform predetermined printing. That is, there are a NO1 print command and a NO2 print command, which correspond to the good / bad signals output from the above-mentioned discrimination means. There are two print modes, a fixed mode and a counter mode. In the fixed mode, a predetermined number such as a lot number is printed on all the print substrates 76. On the other hand, in the counter mode, the number is incremented by one each time printing is performed. Whether the NO1 print command and the NO2 print command are set to the fixed mode or the counter mode may be set arbitrarily.

Next, the setting of the print mode will be specifically described. As the characters to be printed, numbers and alphabets can be mixed. First, the setting key 7
By operating the "setting" key 9 and the left and right "arrow" keys, either the NO1 print command or the NO2 print command is selected. For example, assume that the NO1 print command is selected. Next, the height of the character to be printed is selected by operating the "number" key. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 8, 3 m
It can be set arbitrarily in the range of m, 4 mm, 5 mm, 6 mm, 7 mm, 8 mm, and 9 mm (the smallest character in FIG. 8 is 3 mm and the largest character is 9 mm). Needless to say, the height is not limited to the above.

Next, the number of characters to be printed is set by operating the "number" key. For example, it can be arbitrarily set in the range of 0 to 12, and for example, 6
Set to character. Next, either the fixed mode or the counter mode described above is selected by operating the left and right "arrow" keys. For example, assume that the counter mode is selected. Next, operate the "Alphabet" and "Numeric" keys to input the number you want to set. For example, assume that "AB0001" is input. In this case, printing is performed while sequentially counting from "AB0001" to "AB9999". This completes the setting work related to the NO1 print command. In the same way, the settings related to the NO2 print command are made.

Further, in the case of the present embodiment, the number of prints (the number corresponding to the number of the printed boards 76 printed) can be accumulated and stored and can be displayed appropriately. . Also, the total number of prints can be erased as appropriate to return to the initial state. Furthermore, test printing is possible, and in that case, count-up (both the count in the counter mode and the total number of prints) is not performed. Note that all of the above work is performed by operating the setting key 79.

The operation will be described based on the above configuration. For example, assume that the NO1 print command and the NO2 print command are set as follows. First, assume that the "counter mode" is set for both the NO1 print command and the NO2 print command, and 6 characters including 2 letters of the alphabet are printed.
That is, the NO1 print command is, for example, “OK0001”
It will be printed while counting more sequentially, NO
For example, the two-print command is printed while sequentially counting from “NG0001”.

On the other hand, as described above, the printed circuit board 76 is designed to be judged as good or bad at the stage before printing is performed by the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. Either the "signal" or the "defective signal" is output. Then, the good signal is output as the NO1 print command, and the defective signal is output as the NO2 print command.

Therefore, when the first printed circuit board 76 is determined to be good, the good signal is output as the NO1 print command,
When the printed circuit board 76 is conveyed to the printing position, "OK0001" is printed. When the next printed board 76 is determined to be defective, the signal is output as a NO2 print command, and when the printed board 76 is conveyed to the print position, "NG0001" is printed.
Thereafter, a predetermined printing is performed on each printed circuit board 76 by the same flow. Therefore, it is possible to determine whether the product is a good product or a defective product by looking at the characters printed on each printed circuit board 76, and it is possible to easily confirm the total number of good products and the total number of defective products.

Next, the printing operation will be described. First,
As shown in FIG. 4 and FIG.
Install at any position of 3. This is the printed circuit board 76
Is arbitrarily determined depending on the printing position of the, the size of the printed circuit board 76, and the like. The printed circuit board 76 is sequentially conveyed in the direction shown by the arrow in FIG.

When the printed circuit board 76 is not in operation for printing, it is in a state as shown in FIG. That is, the lift 3 is raised by the air cylinder mechanism 5,
The printing pen 55 has returned to the origin position in the XY plane, and the tip of the printing pen 55 is capped with a cap 69.
In this state, when the NO1 print command or the NO2 print command is input, the rotary cylinder 65 is activated and the support member 67
3 to rotate the cap 69 from the state shown in FIG.
Wait until the state indicated by the virtual line.

Next, the printed circuit board 76 is conveyed to the printing position, and in this state, the air cylinder mechanism 5 lowers the elevating table 3 and thus the printing pen 55. And
The Y-direction driving unit 21 and the X-direction driving unit 33 are appropriately driven to move the printing pen 55 and print a predetermined character on the printed board 76. At that time, the air cylinder mechanism 47 is appropriately driven to raise the printing pen 55 by a slight amount. For example, if one character is printed and then the next character is printed, the air cylinder mechanism 4
The printing pen 55 is slightly raised by 7 and then the printing pen 55 is moved. In addition, even when printing one character, if you want to print discontinuous characters, the printing pen 5
Move 5 while moving it up slightly.

When the predetermined printing on the print board 76 is completed, the state shown in FIG. 2 is restored. That is, the Y-direction driving means 21 and the X-direction driving means 33 return the printing pen 55 to the origin position in the XY plane, and the air cylinder mechanism 5 causes the lifting table 3 and thus the printing pen 5 to move.
5 is raised. And the rotary cylinder mechanism 6
5 drives to rotate the support member 67 to move the cap 69.
Is applied to the tip of the printing pen 55. Hereinafter, by repeating the same operation, predetermined characters are printed on the plurality of printed circuit boards 76.

According to this embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. First, desired printing can be performed on the print substrate 76 by a printing device having a relatively simple structure. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to use a large-sized and costly marking device or printing device, and it is possible to reduce the working space and the cost. In addition, since it can be easily transported, it is easy to change the installation location.

When a non-operating character or one printing operation is completed, the printing pen 55 is capped with the cap 69, so that the printing pen 55 is volatilized or dust is left on the pen tip. There is no possibility that the print quality will be deteriorated by the adhesion of the like. In particular, when the cap 69 is capped on the printing pen 55, the O-ring 71 is attached to the cap 69 side, so that a high airtight state can be maintained and the volatilization prevention effect is high.

Further, in the case of the present embodiment, two different types of printing can be performed based on the two printing commands, that is, the NO1 printing command and the NO2 printing command. Therefore, as shown in the embodiment, the printed circuit board 76 can be divided into a good product and a defective product and different printing can be performed respectively. Moreover, since the total number of prints can be added up, it is easy to confirm the number of prints. Further, since the fixed mode and the counter mode can be arbitrarily selected, it is possible to perform the same printing on a plurality of printed circuit boards 76 or print consecutive numbers.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned one embodiment. First, in the above-mentioned one embodiment, the case where the printer is incorporated in the printed circuit board manufacturing line has been shown, but the invention is not limited thereto. Further, the type and number of characters to be printed may be set arbitrarily. For example, a graphic or the like may be set / stored by external input and printed. The number of print commands is not limited to two, and may be one or three or more. Each drive means is not limited to the air cylinder or the pulley / belt system as shown in the figure, but a rack / pinion system, another cylinder system,
A sprocket / chain system or the like may be used. Moreover, various objects other than the printed circuit board are assumed as the print object. Further, in the above-described one embodiment, the setting work is performed by using the operation panel 77, but this is provided by another control means (for example, a personal computer) arranged remotely.
May be performed using. Further, if a signal on site is output to the remote control means, product management can be performed there.

[0033]

As described in detail above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, desired printing can be performed on a non-printing object with a relatively simple structure. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to use a large-sized and costly marking device or printing device, and it is possible to reduce the working space and the cost. In addition, since the cap is capped on the printing pen when it is operated, it is possible to prevent the tip of the printing pen from drying. In particular, the effect is high when the cap is equipped with an O-ring. Further, since different types of printing can be performed according to a plurality of external command signals, the range of use is wide.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention and is a view taken along the line II-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention and is a view taken along the line III-III in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention, showing the operation.

FIG. 5 is a view showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention and is a top view of the operation panel.

FIG. 7 is a front view of the operation panel showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention and illustrating print contents.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of the cap according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Device Main Body 3 Lifting Table 5 Air Cylinder Mechanism (1st Z Direction Driving Means) 19 Y Direction Moving Table 21 Y Direction Driving Means 31 X Direction Moving Table 33 X Direction Driving Means 47 Air Cylinder Mechanism (2nd Z Direction Driving Means) 55 Printing Pen 57 Cap means 69 Cap

Claims (4)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An apparatus main body, a lift table mounted on the apparatus main body so as to be movable up and down in a vertical Z direction and moved up and down by a first Z direction drive means, and mounted on the lift base so as to be movable in a horizontal Y direction. A Y-direction moving base mounted and moved by Y-direction driving means; and an X-direction moving base mounted on the Y-direction moving base so as to be movable in a horizontal X-direction orthogonal to the Y-direction and moved by the X-direction driving means. , Above X
A printing pen which is attached to the direction moving table so as to be able to move up and down and which can be moved up and down by a second Z-direction driving means and is detachable; and a cap means which is attached to the main body of the apparatus and caps a tip portion of the printing pen when not operating. A printing device comprising: a control unit that inputs an external signal to drive each of the above-mentioned mechanism units to perform predetermined printing on an object to be printed. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means inputs a plurality of print command signals and performs printing corresponding to each print command on a print target object. Printing device. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an O-ring is incorporated in the cap of the cap means, and a high airtightness is obtained when the tip of the printing pen is capped by the O-ring. A printing device characterized by retaining the property. 4. The printing device according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the print target is a printed circuit board that is conveyed inline.