JPH07318512A - Work external appearance inspection apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a work external appearance inspection apparatus which can automatically accurately inspect the external appearance of a small-sized work such as a rectangular parallelepiped, etc. CONSTITUTION:The work external appearance inspection apparatus comprises a mechanism for intermittently rotating a stationary gear 12 and a turntable 6 integrally with the rotary driver 11 of a DD motor, and a rotary transmitting mechanism 16 for rotating a floating gear 15 integrated with the turntable 6 at a small rotary angle in the same direction as that of the turntable 6. A planetary gear 14 fixed to a work holding rotary head shaft 13 at the periphery of the turntable 6 is engaged with the gear 15, and the shaft 13 and a work 1 held by the shaft 13 are rotated around on their own axes while rotating them around it by the intermittent rotation of the turntable 6 to photograph the lower surface and the side face of the work l by cameras 10b to inspect the external appearance. The work 1 is rotated on its own axis at each predetermined time at each intermittent rotation of the turntable 6, and when it is rotated predetermined times on its own axis, it is photographed by the camera 10b.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a work appearance inspection apparatus for automatically performing appearance inspection on a plurality of surfaces of a small work such as an electronic component by using a camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A visual inspection of a rectangular parallelepiped chip-shaped work such as a noise filter or a resistor having a solder-plated electrode has a plurality of items such as chipping or peeling of a solder-plated electrode. Top, bottom, 4
It is performed every 6 sides in total. Since it is difficult to simultaneously image 6 surfaces of a rectangular parallelepiped work with a camera, this type of visual inspection is usually performed by visually observing an operator after aligning a plurality of rectangular parallelepiped works with a jig. is there.

[0003]

When a visual inspection of a rectangular parallelepiped work is conducted by a worker, it is necessary to transfer the work to a jig several times in order to inspect all six sides of the rectangular parallelepiped work. The workability was poor and the surface of the work was sometimes scratched during transfer. Further, in visual inspection of the visual inspection of the worker, much depends on the subjectivity of the worker, there is a high possibility that an inspection error will occur, and reliability is lacking.

An object of the present invention is to provide a work appearance inspection apparatus having a high workability and a high reliability for automatically performing appearance inspection on a plurality of surfaces of a small work such as a rectangular parallelepiped work.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an apparatus for sequentially inspecting the external appearance of a work by using a plurality of cameras, and a rotary driving body which intermittently rotates at a constant angle and a fixed body which rotates coaxially with the rotary driving body. The gear and the fixed gear are coaxial with each other, and the peripheral part protrudes to the side of the rotary drive, and the turntable is installed in parallel with the fixed gear at multiple points at equal intervals in the peripheral part of the turntable. The rotating head shaft that holds the work in a detachable manner, the planetary gear that is fixed coaxially to each rotating head shaft of the turntable, and the rotatably supported coaxially with the turntable in the same direction have more teeth than the fixed gear. In the same direction, the floating gear that meshes with the planetary gear on the outer circumference and the floating gear are synchronized with the turntable by the rotational force of the rotary drive,
A rotation transmission mechanism that rotates at a rotation angle that is smaller than the rotation angle of the turntable by a predetermined ratio, and a rotary head shaft of the turntable is arranged at a plurality of predetermined inspection stations that stop due to intermittent rotation of the turntable. With a plurality of cameras that inspect the appearance of the work held on the shaft, the rotary drive rotates the turntable intermittently, and this rotation causes the work held on the rotary head shaft of the turntable to rotate by a predetermined angle. It is characterized in that it is revolved around and conveyed to the inspection station where the camera is arranged in order.

The rotation transmitting mechanism includes a first shaft external fixed gear which meshes with teeth on the outer periphery of the fixed gear at a fixed position, a sub-floating gear coaxial with the floating gear and having the same number of teeth as the fixed gear.
The second shaft external fixed gear has the smaller number of teeth than the shaft external fixed gear and meshes with the outer peripheral teeth of the auxiliary floating gear at a fixed position, and the second shaft external fixed gear is rotated by the rotational force of the first shaft external fixed gear. A configuration with a timing belt that rotates at an angle is desirable.

[0007]

When the work is held on the rotary head shaft of the turntable and the turntable is intermittently rotated at a constant angle for one pitch, the floating gear is rotated in the same direction at a smaller angle than the turntable by the rotation transmission mechanism. The pitches rotate intermittently, and the rotating head shaft rotates according to the difference in the rotation angle between the turntable and the floating gear, and the work rotates while revolving. The rotation angle of the work when the turntable rotates intermittently by one pitch can be set to a sufficiently small value by selecting the number of teeth of the floating gear or the like even if the outer diameter of the turntable becomes large. Even if the workpiece is rotated at a high speed, the workpiece rotates at a high speed, and the workpiece can be sent to the inspection station where the camera is installed without worrying about falling off the rotary head shaft. Even if the direction of the camera at the inspection station is the same, since the work is rotated and sent to the inspection station, the inspection surface of the work imaged by the camera at each inspection station is different, and the appearance inspection is performed over the entire surface of the work. Done.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A specific embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the outline of an entire apparatus including a work appearance inspection apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a work 1 to be inspected for appearance. The work 1 is, for example, a rectangular parallelepiped chip-shaped electronic component, and has 6 surfaces which are the entire surfaces thereof, that is, A surface of the upper surface, B and D surfaces of both side surfaces, E and F surfaces of both end surfaces, and a lower surface of FIG. The C-side is visually inspected. This visual inspection is performed by solder-plated electrodes 2, 2'of the work 1.
It is performed in multiple items such as chipping and peeling. The hatching of one electrode 2'shown in FIG. 2 is for clarifying the directionality of the work 1, and the directionality of this electrode 2'is represented by the black dots of the work 1 in FIG. .

The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is provided with a parts feeder 3, a linear feeder 4, front and rear turntables 5 and 6, and one camera 10a is arranged around the turntable 5 in the front stage, and the turntable in the rear stage. Five cameras 10 b to 10 f are arranged around the area 6. The works 1 are conveyed from the parts feeder 3 to the straight advance feeder 4 in a line, for example, with the side A facing upward, and are fed one by one from the straight advance feeder 4 to the preceding turntable 5.

The front turntable 5 has a plurality of, for example, 16 heads 7, ... At equal intervals in the peripheral portion, and the turntable 5 is arranged at an array angle (22.5 °) of the adjacent heads 7 ,.
Rotates intermittently. Each time the turntable 5 is intermittently rotated, the straight-moving feeder 4 supplies the works 1 one by one to the head 7 with the E surface as the rear end, as shown in FIG.
The head 7 chucks both side surfaces of the work 1 supplied by a chuck mechanism (not shown). When the head 7 chucking the work 1 is sent to the first inspection station S ₁ at an angle of 90 ° from the linear feeder 4 by the fourth intermittent rotation of the turntable 5, the head 7 is arranged immediately above the first inspection station S _1. The A surface of the work 1 is imaged by the camera 10a and the appearance inspection of the A surface is performed. When the head 7 of the first inspection station S ₁ is sent to the work transfer station S ₂ which is 180 ° opposite to the linear feeder 4 by the intermittent rotation of the turntable 5, the work 1 is transferred from the head 7 to the head 8 of the turntable 6 in the subsequent stage. Is automatically supplied. Every time the front and rear turntables 5 and 6 rotate intermittently, the first inspection station S ₁ performs an A-side appearance inspection of the work 1 and the work transfer station S ₂ transfers the work 1.

The turntable 6 at the rear stage has a plurality of, for example, 32 heads 8, ... At equal intervals in the peripheral portion, and the turntable 6 rotates intermittently at the arrangement angle θ of the heads 8 ,. The present invention is characterized by the rotary drive mechanism of the turntable 6 in the latter stage, and a specific example thereof will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 7.

FIG. 4 shows a work appearance inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of five surfaces of the work 1 excluding the A surface by using five cameras 10b to 10f, which is a DD motor or the like installed at a fixed position. The rotary table 11 is used as a drive source for the turntable 6
Is intermittently rotated at a constant angle of 360 ° / 32 = 11.25 °. The rotary driving body 11 is circular, and the fixed gear 12 and the turntable 6 are coaxially fixed to the upper portion thereof. Fixed gear 1
Reference numeral 2 has, for example, 360 teeth on the outer circumference which is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the rotary drive body 11. The rotary head shafts 13 are fixed to the heads 8 of the turntable 6 in parallel to the axial direction of the turntable 6 so as to rotate, and the rotary head shafts 1
The planetary gears 14 are fixed coaxially to the outer circumferences of the lower portions of 3, ....
Further, at the lower end of each rotary head shaft 13, ..., Work suction means, for example, a suction nozzle 21, that detachably vacuum-holds the work 1 and holds the work 1 is projected. Each rotary head shaft 13, ...
The planetary gears 14, ... Of are meshed with teeth on the outer periphery of a floating gear 15 coaxially and parallelly arranged below the turntable 6.

A rotation transmission mechanism 16 is installed between the floating gear 15 and the fixed gear 12. This rotates the floating gear 15 in the same direction in synchronization with the turntable 6 by the rotational force of the fixed gear 12 and at a rotation angle that is smaller than the rotation angle of the turntable 6 by a predetermined ratio. A specific example of the rotation transmission mechanism 16 is shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B and FIG. 6, which is a first shaft external fixed gear 17 that meshes with the fixed gear 12 at a fixed position.
And a sub-floating gear 19 which is coaxial with the floating gear 15 and has the same number of teeth as the fixed gear 12, and a second shaft which has a smaller number of teeth than the first shaft external fixed gear 17 and meshes with the sub-floating gear 19 at a fixed position. The external fixed gear 18 and the timing belt 20 that rotates the second external fixed gear 18 in the same direction at the same rotation angle by the rotational force of the first external fixed gear 17 are provided.

An integral part of the floating gear 15 and the sub-floating gear 19 is supported by the fixed ring 22 via a bearing 23 at its inner peripheral portion. The fixed ring 22 is used for the rotary driver 11.
It is fixed at the upper end of a column 24 standing upright in the vicinity of the side.
A bearing 25 is installed between the fixed gear 12 and the fixed ring 22. A pair of the first shaft external fixed gear 17 and the second shaft external fixed gear 18 is supported by a support plate 27 fixed to a side of the rotary drive body 11 by columns 26.

One head 8 of the turntable 6 is connected to the turntable 5 at the preceding stage to transfer the workpiece S to the work station S.
_When it is carried in ₂ , the surface A of one work 1 is vacuum-sucked by the suction nozzle 21 of the rotary head shaft 13 of the head 8. The work 1 is adsorbed by the adsorption nozzle 21 in a directionality with the E surface facing the center of the turntable 6. As shown in FIG. 3, among the 32 stations where the 32 heads 8, ... Of the turntable 6 stop, there are 4 stations continuous from the work transfer station S ₂ , and the angle formed by each is 45 °. 5 stations S in total
_{3 to} S ₇ are the 2nd to 6th inspection stations, and each of the 2nd to 6th inspection stations.
Camera 10b~ one by one to the inspection station S ₃ ~S ₇
10f is arranged. First inspection station S ₃
Then, the external appearance of the C surface, which is the lower surface of the work 1, is inspected by the camera 10b. E plane is a side and end faces of the workpiece 1 in the third to sixth inspection station S ₄ to S _7, D surface, F face, the appearance of the B surface is inspected by a camera 10c~10f corresponding in sequence.
Three consecutive stations S _{8 to} S ₁₀ after the sixth inspection station S ₇ are work discharge stations, and defective work pieces are discharged from the head 8 at the first work discharge station S ₈ and the next work discharge station S ₉ The work whose appearance has not been determined is discharged from the head 8, and the work 1 having good appearance is discharged from the head 8 at the remaining work discharge station S ₁₀ .

A camera 10b for inspecting the lower surface (C surface) of the workpiece 1 sucked by the suction nozzle 21 of the rotary head shaft 13 at the second inspection station S _{3 on} the periphery of the turntable 6 is indicated by a chain line in FIG. As shown, it is arranged below the peripheral portion of the turntable 6. As a result, the outer diameter of the turntable 6 is smaller than that of the rotary driver 11 in order to create a space below the periphery of the turntable 6 where the camera 10b can be placed.
It is set sufficiently larger than the outer diameter of. Further, as the floating gear 15 that meshes with the planetary gear 14 of the rotary head shaft 13 of the turntable 6, a floating gear having an outer diameter as large as that of the turntable 6 is used.

Each rotary head shaft 13 of the turntable 6,
The work 1 supported by ... is 1 of the turntable 6
It revolves with 1 pitch intermittent rotation of 1.25 °, and it also rotates by a predetermined angle. This one rotation angle is determined by the number of teeth of each gear. In the above embodiment, the number of teeth of the fixed gear 12 is 360, the number of teeth of the first shaft external fixed gear 17 is 40,
The shaft external fixed gear 18 has 36 teeth, the sub-floating gear 19 has 360 teeth, the floating gear 15 has 480 teeth, and the planetary gear 1
The number of teeth of 4 is set to 24, and the one rotation angle of the work 1 is set to 90 ° / 4 = 22.5 °.

Next, an operation example of driving the turntable 6 and inspecting the work appearance by each gear having the above-mentioned number of teeth will be described.

When the rotary drive 11, fixed gear 12 and turntable 6 are rotated counterclockwise as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 7 by a predetermined head arrangement angle θ of 11.25 °, the fixed gear having 360 teeth. The 1st shaft external fixed gear 17 of the number of teeth 40 meshing with 12 rotates clockwise (11.25 ° x 360)
Rotate at an angle of /40=101.25°. At the same time, the heads 8, ... Of the turntable 6 also revolve around 11.25 °, and the head 8 of the work transfer station S ₂ moves to the next station S ₂ ′.

The first shaft external fixed gear 17 is rotated clockwise by 10
When rotated by 1.25 °, the second shaft external fixed gear 18 is also rotated by 101.25 ° clockwise by the timing belt 20. When the second-shaft external fixed gear 18 having 36 teeth rotates clockwise by 101.25 °, the number of teeth 360 meshed with the second external fixed gear 18 becomes 360.
The sub-floating gear 19 of the counterclockwise (101.25 ° × 3
6) Rotate at an angle of 360/10 = 10.25. Then, the floating gear 15 integrated with the sub floating gear 19 is also 10.125.
Rotate counterclockwise at an angle of °.

When the floating gear 15 having 480 teeth rotates counterclockwise by 10.125 °, the planetary gear 14 having 24 teeth meshing with the floating gear 15 rotates clockwise (10.125 ° ×).
480) /24=202.5 degrees to try to rotate.
Here, the turntable 6 rotates 11.25 ° and the rotary head shaft 13 of one head 8 revolves by 11.25 °. As a result, the rotation angle of the turntable 6 is 11.25 ° and the floating gear 15 is 10.125. The planet gear 14 revolves with respect to the floating gear 15 by the difference of the rotation angle of 1.125 °, and the planet gear 14 revolves (1.125 ° × 480) with this one pitch revolution.
Rotate counterclockwise at a constant angle of /24=22.5°.

That is, when the rotary head shaft 13 of the head 8 of the work transfer station S ₂ of FIG. 7 revolves to the counterclockwise next station S ₂ ′, this rotary head shaft 1
3 rotates counterclockwise by 22.5 ° and rotates head shaft 13
The work 1 held by is rotated 22.5 ° counterclockwise. When the intermittent rotation of the turntable 6 is performed four times, the work 1 at the work transfer station S ₂ becomes 22.5
After being rotated by 90 ° and rotated by 90 °, it is sent to the second inspection station S ₃ . At the work transfer station S ₂ , since the work 1 is attracted to the suction nozzle 21 of the rotary head shaft 13 with the E surface facing inward, the second inspection station S ₃ rotated 90 ° from this position.
The work 1 has the side B facing outward. At the second inspection station S ₃ , the lower surface C surface of the work 1 is imaged by the camera 10b, and the appearance inspection of the C surface is performed.

When the turntable 6 is further intermittently rotated by 4 pitches, the rotating head shaft 13 of the head 8 of the second inspection station S ₃ rotates 90 ° while rotating counterclockwise by 22.5 °, and the third inspection station. Sent to S ₄ . The E surface of the workpiece 1 at the third inspection station S ₄ is facing outward, and an image of the E surface is inspected by the camera 10c arranged at a position where the E surface faces.

The work 1 which has been rotated by 90 ° from the third inspection station S ₄ to the fourth inspection station S ₅ in the above manner has the D side facing outward and the appearance inspection of the D side is performed by the camera 10d. Be seen. Also, the fourth inspection station S
Work 1 moved from ₅ to 5th inspection station S ₆
With the F surface facing outward, a visual inspection of the F surface is performed by the camera 10e. Further, the work 1 moved from the fifth inspection station S ₆ to the sixth inspection station S ₇ has the B side facing outward, and the appearance inspection of the B side is performed by the camera 10f. The visual inspection of the entire surface of the work 1 is completed at the sixth inspection station S ₇ . The work 1 is discharged from the turntable 6 at any one of the discharge stations S _{8 to} S _{10 based on} the result data of the completed visual inspection.

The revolution and rotation of the work 1 for the work appearance inspection as described above can be performed even if the floating gear 15 is fixed. In this case, in order to secure a space where the camera 10b can be arranged below the periphery of the turntable 6, the floating gear 15 having an outer diameter sufficiently larger than that of the rotary drive body 11 is used.
When rotated by 1.25 °, the planetary gear 14 rotates by a large angle of 225.5 °. Therefore, unless the rotation speed of the turntable 6 for one pitch is made extremely slow, there is a possibility that the workpiece 1 which rotates by 225.5 ° by one pitch intermittent rotation may be shaken off from the suction nozzle 21 by the centrifugal force.

However, as in the above embodiment, the floating gear 1
5 is the rotation angle of 1 pitch of the turntable 6 (11.25
If the rotation angle (10.125 °) is smaller than the rotation angle (10.125 °) in the same direction, the planetary gear 14 rotates by a small angle of 22.5 ° by one pitch intermittent rotation of the turntable 6. Even if the rotation speed of the turntable 6 for one pitch is increased, there is no fear that the work 1 is shaken off from the suction nozzle 21 by the centrifugal force. In fact, the turntable 6 moves 0.12 seconds per pitch, and stops 0.
Workpiece 1 does not fall off even if it is intermittently rotated at high speed in 18 seconds,
Speeding up the visual inspection of the work 1 is facilitated.

The heads 8 of the turntable 6 are ...
It is possible to rotate the rotary head shafts 13, ... Of each of the rotary head shafts 13 ...
If this is done, the entire apparatus becomes complicated and large and expensive, and maintenance of the entire apparatus becomes troublesome. When the rotary head shafts 13 of the heads 8 of the turntable 6 are rotated by a common gear in synchronism with the rotation / stop of the rotary drive body 11 as in the above-described embodiment, the components of the entire apparatus are constructed. The number of points can be reduced, which facilitates size reduction and cost reduction.

The shape of the work to be inspected by the apparatus of the present invention is not limited to a rectangular parallelepiped, but may be a disk or a sphere, and the number of heads of the turntable and one pitch of the turntable can be selected according to the shape of the work. The rotation angle of the rotary head shaft during intermittent rotation is set.

[0030]

According to the present invention, when the work is held on the rotary head shaft at the peripheral portion of the turntable and the turntable is intermittently rotated by one pitch at a constant angle, the turntable is rotated by one angle in the same direction at a smaller angle. The rotating head shaft rotates according to the rotation angle of the floating gear that rotates intermittently, and the work rotates around a specified angle while revolving, so the appearance of the side and bottom of the work can be automatically and accurately inspected by a camera. A visual inspection device can be provided.

Further, even if the turntable has a large number of heads around it and has a large diameter, the floating gear attached to the turntable suppresses a single rotation angle of the rotary head shaft to a small extent, thereby reducing the rotary head shaft. Since the work is prevented from falling off due to the rotation of the, the index of the turntable can be easily increased, and the high-speed visual inspection of the work can be performed.

Further, since each rotary head shaft of the turntable is rotated about its own axis by using a common gear such as a fixed gear, it is easy to reduce the size and cost of the entire apparatus.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a main part for explaining an embodiment of a work visual inspection apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of a work.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view of a main part of the work visual inspection apparatus of FIG.

4 is a side view including a partial cross section of the work visual inspection apparatus of FIG.

5A and 5B are partial cross-sectional views of the work visual inspection apparatus of FIG. 4 at two different locations.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a main part of the work visual inspection apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a planar arrangement relationship of each gear of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Work 6 Turntable 10b-10f Camera 11 Rotation driver 12 Fixed gear 13 Rotary head shaft 14 Planetary gear 15 Floating gear 16 Rotation transmission mechanism 17 1st axis External fixed gear 18 2nd axis External fixed gear 19 Sub floating gear 20 Timing Belt 21 Work suction means (suction nozzle)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A rotary drive body that intermittently rotates at a constant angle, a fixed gear that rotates coaxially with the rotary drive body, and a turntable that is coaxial with the fixed gear and whose peripheral portion protrudes laterally of the rotary drive body. And a rotary head shaft that is installed axially parallel to the fixed gear at multiple locations on the periphery of the turntable and holds the workpiece detachably at the tip, and a planetary gear that is coaxially fixed to the rotary head shaft. , The same as the floating gear, which is rotatably supported in the same direction as the turntable and meshes with the planetary gear on the outer circumference with more teeth than the fixed gear, and the floating gear is synchronized with the turntable by the rotational force of the rotary drive. , A rotation transmission mechanism that rotates at a rotation angle that is smaller than the rotation angle of the turntable by a predetermined ratio, and a plurality of inspection stations that the rotating head shaft stops at intermittent rotation of the turntable. The work appearance inspection apparatus is provided with a plurality of cameras for inspecting the appearance of the work held on the rotary head shaft. 2. The rotation transmission mechanism comprises: a first shaft external fixed gear that meshes with teeth on the outer periphery of the fixed gear at fixed positions; and a sub-floating gear that is coaxial with the floating gear and has the same number of teeth as the fixed gear. The second shaft external fixed gear has a smaller number of teeth than the first shaft external fixed gear and meshes with the outer peripheral teeth of the auxiliary floating gear at a fixed position, and the second shaft external fixed gear is rotated by the rotational force of the first shaft external fixed gear. The work visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a timing belt that rotates at the same rotation angle. 3. The rotary head shaft comprises a turntable 4
Rotate by 90 ° for each intermittent pitch rotation.
2. The work visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least four inspection stations that stop at each intermittent pitch rotation are provided with cameras.