JPH0773749B2 - Positioning method for long objects - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for positioning a long object in a long object processing apparatus such as an intermittent transfer type lead frame.

<Prior art and its problems> As a conventional method for positioning a long object such as a lead frame, a positioning member such as a pin is inserted into a positioning means such as a pilot hole of the long object to naturally perform alignment. The way to do is done.

Pilot holes formed in the lead frame by punching or the like have some pitch dimension errors due to settings during processing, tension, thermal expansion, and the like. When the long lead frame is subjected to plating or the like, this pitch dimension error may accumulate one after another.

Therefore, by inserting the pin into the pilot hole each time the lead frame is intermittently transferred, a process such as plating is performed while correcting a slight pitch dimension error of the pilot hole for each transfer.

However, such a lead frame positioning method has the following problems.

If frictional force is applied to the lead frame for some reason or if a strong tension is applied, the position of the lead frame cannot be corrected even if the pin is inserted into the pilot hole, resulting in deformation of the pilot hole. Only.

Especially for thin leadframes, the positioning method of simply transporting a fixed distance and inserting the pilot pin cannot be adopted because the leadframe is damaged. In such a case, conventionally, the position is often detected by performing the position detection by a method of transmitting light to the pilot hole, but the detection accuracy is poor and the positioning accuracy is not good.

<Object of the Invention> An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide a method capable of highly accurately positioning a long object such as a lead frame even in a state where frictional force or tension is applied. To provide.

<Means for Solving Problems> In the present invention, when a long object having a positioning means is positioned by a corresponding positioning member and intermittently quantitatively transferred, the long object is moved to a position near a required position. After that, the positioning member is pressed and engaged with the positioning means of the long object, and the long object is moved by a small amount while being pressed by the positioning member, and the positioning means of the long object and the positioning member are moved. It is a method of positioning a long object, which is characterized in that the positioning is performed so as to fit exactly to the required position.

Here, it is preferable that the elongated member is a lead frame, the positioning means is a pilot hole formed in the lead frame, and the positioning member is a pilot pin.

<Structure of the Invention> The present invention is described in detail below.

The present invention is useful for positioning long objects such as lead frames.
Highly accurate positioning is possible without damage to long objects.

The following description will be given on a lead frame as a typical example. In the intermittent transfer, the lead frame is moved by a distance slightly shorter than the specified transfer distance, and then the remaining distance is intermittently transferred a plurality of times by a small distance. The transfer may be performed for a large distance, and then the minute distance retreat may be intermittently transferred a plurality of times, or forward and retreat may be combined.

The lead frame is a continuous strip of thin metal, etc.
It is a circuit component. When various kinds of processing such as partial plating and etching are performed, the lead frame is intermittently transferred quantitatively for each length that can be processed once.

Positioning is performed for each fixed amount of intermittent transfer. The higher the positioning accuracy, the better. For example, a lead frame supplied to a press or the like requires at least ± 0.01 mm.

As mentioned earlier, this alignment is
The position of the lead frame has been naturally corrected by inserting a pin into the pilot hole of the lead frame.

This utilizes the play when fixing the position of the lead frame, but when transferring a thin lead frame, etc., the tension or frictional force on the lead frame is often applied. I can't do that.

Therefore, in the method of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the lead frame 4 is transferred by a distance B slightly smaller than the specified transfer distance A. Next, the lead frame 4 is brought into contact with the positioning member such as the pilot pin 1 at a constant pressure (in FIG. 1, the tip of the pilot pin 1 is engaged with the positioning means such as the pilot hole 2 of the lead frame, 1 and the lead frame 4 on the side surface of the pilot hole 2 are in contact with each other with a certain pressure), and the lead frame 4 is intermittently transferred by a minute distance until it reaches a specified transfer distance A. When this is repeated and the specified transfer distance A is reached, as shown in FIG.
Is abutted against the lead frame 4 at a constant pressure, so that it fits into the pilot hole 2 and fits into the escape hole 3 of the lead frame support. The indentation of the pilot pin is detected to complete the specified distance transfer, and the positioning is performed.

The specified transfer distance is the length of the lead frame that can be subjected to plating and the like once. Further, the distance slightly shorter than the specified transfer distance may be set so as to be compatible with the pitch error per length processed at one time caused by setting during processing, tension, thermal expansion and the like.

Although the positioning means and the positioning member in the above description are the pilot pin 1 and the pilot hole 2, the positioning means, which is a cutout portion on the side surface of the long object, and the shape which fits the cutout portion are horizontally separated. It may be a positioning member such as a guide that comes into contact with the side surface of the long object from the above position.

A preferred embodiment of the apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention will be described below.

The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes a micro air cylinder 5, a pilot pin 1 attached to the micro air cylinder 5 via an elastic member, a pulse motor 6, and a lead frame 4 intermittently driven by rotation of the pulse motor 6. An intermittent transfer means 9 for horizontally sending the pilot pin 1, a photoelectric switch 7 for detecting the position of the pilot pin 1 located under the escape hole 3 of the lead frame support and located at an appropriate distance, and a control means for controlling the movements thereof. Eight.

The minimum transfer distance of the transfer means 9 can be set up to 0.005 mm, and the repeatability can be made sufficiently high. The pressing force of the micro air cylinder 5 can be set arbitrarily.

The operation of the apparatus of FIG. 1 according to the method of the present invention will be described.

First, the lead frame 4 is intermittently transferred by the transfer means 9 to a distance B slightly smaller than the specified transfer distance. The specified transfer distance point is A, and between B and A, for example, 1/10 is transferred intermittently by a minute distance. At this time, B is set such that the tip of the pilot pin 1 is in contact with the tip of the pilot hole 2 when the pilot pin 1 is lowered by the micro air cylinder 5, and as shown in FIG. While pressing the lead frame 4 with the micro air cylinder 5, the lead frame is transported by a minute distance.
When the lead frame 4 is repeatedly moved by a minute distance and is moved from B shown in FIG. 1 to A shown in FIG. 2, the pilot hole 2 is gradually pushed by the pressing force of the micro air cylinder 5.
The pilot pin 1 inserted therein completely enters the pilot hole 2 and is further recessed in the escape hole 3 of the lead frame support. At this time, the photoelectric switch 7 detects the depression of the pilot pin 1. When the photoelectric switch 7 is turned on, the alignment is completed, and the control means 8 turns off the minute distance transfer.

In the state shown in FIG. 2, the lead frame 4 is subjected to a treatment such as plating, and when the treatment is completed, the control means 8 turns off the micro air cylinder 5 and the pilot pin 1 returns to its original upper position by the elastic member. The lead frame 4 is again moved by a distance slightly shorter than the next specified transfer distance, and this positioning operation is repeated.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The method of the present invention can be applied when positioning is performed by inserting a pilot pin into a pilot hole, for example, a partial plating device for an IC lead frame,
It can be widely used for positioning in etching equipment or partial plating equipment for connector frames.

It can also be used for positioning when plating metal strips other than IC lead frames.

<Examples> The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to Examples.

(Example) The lead frame was positioned by the method of the present invention using the apparatus shown in FIG.

The processing device (not shown) was an intermittent feed type long lead frame spot plating device in which a frictional force was generated in the plated portion and the static frictional force was about 2 kg. The plating length per time is 500 mm, that is, the specified transfer distance is 500 mm. On the other hand, it was transferred by 0.5 mm, which was 499.5 mm, and the pilot pin was pressed against the lead frame with a force of about 300 g. After that, repeating 0.1 mm transfer intermittently,
Check the pin insertion signal each time. When the pin insertion completion signal is transmitted by the photoelectric switch 7, positioning is completed and the next lead frame transfer operation starts. Also, 0.1m
m If the pin insertion signal is not transmitted even after repeating 10 times, it is considered that the pin could not be inserted for some reason.
The operation is temporarily stopped and an alarm is sounded.

Positioning accuracy is ± 0.0 when the minute transfer distance is 0.1 mm.
5mm can be expected and high precision positioning was possible.

(Comparative Example) The pitch dimension error of the pilot hole of the same lead frame as used in the example is about ± 20 μm / pitch,
The processing device used is a device that performs plating on a length of 25 pitches at once, and unless the positioning method of the present invention is used,
A 0.5 mm pilot hole position error was expected when the lead frame was transferred.

<Effects of the Invention> According to the present invention, it is possible to perform positioning with high accuracy even in a thin lead frame or the like.

The accuracy of the method of the present invention is high especially when it is used in a processing apparatus having a long transfer distance for intermittent transfer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the pilot pin is inserted into the pilot hole after the micro transfer is repeated several times. Explanation of symbols 1 …… Pilot pin, 2 …… Pilot hole, 3 …… Lead frame support base clearance hole, 4 …… Lead frame, 5 …… Micro air cylinder, 6 …… Pulse motor, 7 …… Photoelectric switch , 8: control means, 9: transfer means, 10: lead frame transfer direction, A: specified transfer distance, B: slightly shorter than specified transfer distance

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Katsuhiro Aoki 3-1-1, Sukegawa-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki Hitachi Cable Co., Ltd. Electric wire factory (56) References Kaisho 61-46029 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. When positioning a long object having a positioning means by a corresponding positioning member and intermittently transferring the long object quantitatively, after the long object is moved to a position near a required position, the long object positioning means. The positioning member is pressed against and engaged with, and the long object is moved by a small amount while being pressed by the positioning member, and the positioning means of the long object and the positioning member are exactly fitted to the required position. A method of positioning a long object characterized by positioning. 2. The elongated member according to claim 1, wherein the elongated object is a lead frame, the positioning means is a pilot hole formed in the lead frame, and the positioning member is a pilot pin. How to position things.