JPH0723557B2 - Substrate automatic loading device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Overview] The present invention relates to an automatic loading device for sequentially supplying a substrate such as a printed board to a plating device, etc. equipped with an automatic racking mechanism, in which a substrate is taken out horizontally from a universal conveyor. To provide a compact and highly versatile substrate automatic loading device that can smoothly supply substrates even when substrates of different sizes (heights) are mixed when supplying them to a racking part without chucking. For this purpose, a stopper that moves according to the size (height) of the horizontal substrate received from the standing conveyor is provided on the reversing table, and the lower edge of the substrate is supported by this stopper.
An automatic loading device for moving the substrate to the clamp position is constructed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic loading device for sequentially supplying substrates such as printed boards to a plating device having an automatic racking mechanism.

In recent years, as the size and shape of printed circuit boards have diversified, there is an increasing demand for loading devices with high versatility. Therefore, although a large and complicated automatic loading device has already been provided, there are problems in operability and maintainability, and it is necessary to solve this.

[Conventional technology]

In the conventional loading device of this type, in order to reliably transfer the substrate, the substrate is set in advance in a dedicated cassette box or the like, and the end portion of the substrate is chucked (clamped) by a robot hand or the like. It was taken out and supplied to the racking unit as it was. However, a cassette station is provided in front of the loading device, and a robot is installed on the upper part of the loading device, which makes the device large and complicated. Therefore, it is necessary to obstruct workability, maintainability, safety, etc. by blocking the visual field by the structure blocking the front surface of the main body device, and it is necessary to change the cassette box according to the size and shape of the substrate. There was such a problem.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

Therefore, the present invention, in the case where a substrate such as a printed board is taken out horizontally from a universal type standing conveyor and is supplied to a racking portion without being chucked,
An object of the present invention is to provide a compact and highly versatile automatic loading device for substrates, which can smoothly supply substrates even when substrates of different sizes (heights) are mixed.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to solve this problem, in the present invention, while sequentially stocking the substrates in a vertical state parallel to each other, and a standing-up type conveyor that can sequentially horizontal the substrate by tilting about 90 degrees at the end. , A reversing table for supporting the substrate in a horizontal state, a stopper provided on the opposite side of the conveyor of the reversing table and moving back and forth on the reversing table according to the height of the substrate, and the stopper of the substrate With the lower edge supported, a means for inclining the reversing table by about 90 degrees to bring the substrate into a vertical state again, and a back support bracket for supporting the opposite surface of the reversing table of the substrate in the vertical state, An automatic loading device for a substrate is provided, which comprises a clamp mechanism for clamping the upper end of the substrate in a vertical state.

[Work]

In the present invention, since the stopper moves back and forth on the reversing table according to the height of the substrate, when the reversing table is tilted by 90 degrees and the substrate is in the vertical state, the upper edge of the substrate has its size (height). ) Come to a certain position regardless. Therefore, the clamp mechanism can clamp the substrate at the same position regardless of the size of the substrate.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of the automatic loading device of the present invention. A substrate 1 (1a) such as a printed board is supported by a substrate holder 2 of a stand-up type conveyor 3 and sequentially stocked in a vertical state parallel to each other. The conveyor 3 is intermittently driven by one pitch of the substrate holder 2, and the starting end (left end)
The substrate 1a is sequentially supplied to the substrate holder 2 at, and at the terminal end (right end), the substrate 1a is moved in the direction of arrow B for each pitch operation.
It is tilted 90 degrees and made horizontal. The horizontally placed substrate 1b is supported on the reversing table 8.

A cylinder 20 and a pushing arm 21 are provided on the conveyor 3 side of the reversing table 8 for separating the substrate 1b from the substrate holder 2. This push-out arm 21 is moved by the cylinder 20 as shown in FIG.
Is moved in the direction, and the substrate 1b is separated from the substrate holder 2. On the side of the reversing table 8 opposite to the conveyor, a stopper 10 that is moved forward and backward (left and right in the drawing) by a cylinder 22 is provided on the reversing table 8. The stopper 10 is moved in the direction of arrow A by the cylinder 22 until it comes into contact with the lower edge (the right end in the figure) of the substrate 1b.

The reversing table 8 is attached to a cylinder arm 11 which is rotated around a shaft 11a by a cylinder 12 so as to be slidable back and forth (left and right in the drawing). After the reversing table 8 supports the substrate 1b and pulls it backward (to the right from the illustrated position), the cylinder arm 11 is rotated about the shaft 11a by the cylinder 12 in the direction of arrow E by about 90 degrees. Accordingly, the reversing table 8 is also reversed in the direction of arrow F by about 90 degrees. At this time, the lower edge of the substrate 1b is supported by the stopper 10.

The surface of the substrate 1c in the vertical state, which is opposite to the reversal table 8, is supported by a back support bracket 14 which is advanced by the cylinder 13 in the direction of arrow D (to the left in the drawing). Board 1c
The racking unit 30 that clamps and transports the board is located above
The racking unit 30 is provided with a clamp 18 that is moved up and down by a lift 23 and is opened and closed by the left and right cylinders 17 and 19. The upper edge of the substrate 1c in the vertical state is clamped by the clamp 18 which is lowered in the direction of arrow I in the opened state, and the substrate 1c is released from the reversing table 8 and the back support bracket 14 and then raised to the plating apparatus (see FIG. (Not shown) etc.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the operation of the main components of the automatic loading device of the present invention.

First, the reversing table 8 advances in the direction A of FIG. 1, and in response to the instruction to complete the advance to a predetermined position, the substrate 1a at the terminal end of the conveyor 3 is reversed from the vertical state to the horizontal state in the arrow B direction. Next, in response to the instruction to complete the inversion, the stopper 10
Move forward in direction A until it abuts the lower end of 1b. If necessary, the push-out arm 21 (first
Drive) to separate the substrate 1b from the substrate holder 2. After the operation of the stopper 10 is completed and a certain time has elapsed, the reversing table 8 is moved backward. In response to the instruction to complete the reverse movement of the reversing table 8, the back support bracket 14 advances in the direction of arrow D to a position where the back bracket 14 indicates the back surface of the substrate 1c. In response to the instruction to complete the forward movement of the back support bracket 14, the reversing cylinder arm 11 is driven in the directions of the arrows E and F to bring the substrate from the horizontal state to the vertical state again. Upon receiving an instruction to complete the reversal of the cylinder arm 11, the elevating lift 23 is lowered. In response to the instruction that the lifting / lowering lift 23 has been lowered to a predetermined position, the cylinders 17 and 19 move in the directions of arrows G and H to close the clamp 18 and clamp the upper end of the substrate 1c. In response to the instruction to complete the clamp, the cylinder arm 11 and the back support bracket 14 return to their original positions, and the stopper 10 also returns to the initial position. Further, the elevating lift 23 operates to raise the substrate 1c at the racking portion 30. As described above, the operation of one cycle (pitch) is completed and the next operation is started.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, the same parts as those shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. In the figure, 4 is a motor for driving the standing conveyor 3, 5 is a limit switch dog for setting the pitch for intermittent movement of the conveyor 3, and 6 is rotation of the motor 4, that is, movement of the conveyor 3 by one pitch. A lit switch, 7 is a backup arm that acts to separate the substrate from the substrate holder 2, like the pushing arm 21 of FIG.
Reference numeral 9 is a rodless cylinder for sliding the reversing table 8 back and forth, and 15 is a power cylinder for vertically moving the racking portion 30.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the stopper is used when the substrate is taken out from the standing conveyor 2 onto the reversing table 8.
Since 10 automatically moves to change the lower end supporting portion of the substrate according to the size of the substrate, it is not necessary to change the clamp position by the clamp 18. Therefore, the printed boards having different sizes can be freely combined and stocked by the stand-up conveyor 1, and the versatility of the apparatus is improved.
Further, since the transfer to the reversing table 8 is performed at the horizontal position,
The height of the device can be made low, and the chucking mechanism, which was indispensable for taking out the substrate, is unnecessary, and the structure is simplified. Therefore, since the structure is simple and the height of the device is low, workability, maintainability, and safety are excellent, and it greatly contributes to the automation of board manufacturing for manufacturing printed wiring boards and the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an automatic loading device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a time chart of main components of the device.
FIG. 3 is a concrete configuration diagram of an embodiment of the automatic loading device of the present invention. 1 (1a, 1b, 1c) ... substrate, 2 ... substrate holder, 3 ... conveyor, 10 ... stopper, 11 ... reversing cylinder arm, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 22 ... cylinder, 14 …… Back support bracket, 18 …… Clamp, 21 …… Pushing arm, 23 …… Lifting lift, 30 …… Racking part.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Minor Kikuchi Minoru Kaminarimon 2-1917, Taito-ku, Tokyo Toyo Giken Kogyo Co., Ltd. (72) Kenji Mimura 2-1917 Kaminarimon, Taito-ku, Tokyo Toyo Giken Kogyo Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP-A-61-41796 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A standing conveyor (3) capable of sequentially stocking substrates (1) in a vertical state parallel to each other and inclining the substrates by about 90 degrees at the ends to sequentially bring the substrates into a horizontal state. A reversing table (8) for supporting the substrate in a horizontal state, and a stopper (10) provided on the opposite side of the conveyor of the reversing table and moving back and forth on the reversing table according to the height of the substrate. Means (11, 12) for inclining the reversing table (8) by about 90 degrees so that the substrate is in a vertical state with the lower edge of the substrate supported by the stopper.
And a back support bracket (14) for supporting the surface of the substrate in the vertical state opposite to the inversion table, and a clamp mechanism (18) for clamping the upper end of the substrate in the vertical state. Automatic loading device.