JPH077878B2 - Method and apparatus for adjusting a board storage unit in a printed circuit board storage rack - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to a printed circuit board storage rack used for holding a large number of printed circuit boards at fixed intervals during storage / transportation of the printed circuit boards. The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for adjusting a board storage unit, which can be automatically adjusted according to the size of a printed circuit board.

[Conventional technology]

A printed wiring board, which should be called the heart of an electronic device product, uses a certain number of substrates of the same size and shape in the production line for manufacturing the printed wiring board itself or for producing an electronic device product incorporating this printed wiring board. Stored in a dedicated rack, bring this rack into the flow of the production line, take out the substrate as necessary and process it, or return it to the rack after processing and use it for subsequent use. Is used frequently and in various ways.

As shown in FIG. 3, such a rack for a printed circuit board is provided with a printed circuit board (not shown) so that the rack 100 dedicated to the printed circuit board can accommodate printed circuit boards of various sizes according to their sizes. ) A fixed plate 108 having a large number of parallel ridges 107 for mounting and supporting one side edge,
A movable plate 110 having a large number of parallel ridges 109 for mounting and supporting the opposite side edges of the printed circuit board, and the movable plate 110 is provided in the upper and lower side plates 101, 102.
It has a structure in which it is slidably supported and fixed to the upper and lower side plates 101, 102 by means of fastening bolts 115, 116 penetrating through the elongated holes of 1, 112, 113, 114, respectively, and the printed circuit board is provided with each protrusion 10
A large number can be stored by placing it between 7,109.

In the figure, reference numerals 103, 104, 105 and 106 denote metal rods that form the four corners of the rack, and reference numerals 119 and 120 denote handles of the rack.

In order to automatically adjust the position of the movable plate of such a rack, the applicant first automatically searches and confirms the position of the movable plate with respect to the fixed plate, moves it to a predetermined position, and then moves the position. Proposed an adjusting method for fixing the movable plate with screws and adjusting the interval according to the size of the printed circuit board, and a device used for this adjusting method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-119297).

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

The adjustment method and apparatus disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-119297 eliminates the conventional manual spacing adjustment and automatically moves the movable plate of the rack in accordance with the size of the printed circuit board. Since it can be adjusted to the position of, it is an epoch-making one that can be incorporated into a production line for manufacturing electronic devices and can be implemented by substantially unmanned operation.

However, it was found that the subsequent use of this adjusting method and its apparatus leaves room for improvement mainly in the following points.

Depending on the customer, there is a case where the equipment is not mounted on a completely automated production line for electronic products, but automatic adjustment is performed by manually supplying a rack for storing boards in the production line. It is good if it can be applied to both the production line and the fully automated production line, and at the same time has a low-cost device that can be used as needed.

To simplify the mechanism of the device and improve the time and efficiency for automatic adjustment of the movable plate.

In particular, this device has a structure in which the movable plate is temporarily moved to the maximum permissible width for moving the movable plate with the bolts loosened, and then returned to a predetermined position, which complicates the mechanism. Since the automatic adjustment takes time and leads to an increase in the cost of the device, its improvement is desired.

With respect to the problems to be solved under the present circumstances, the inventors of the present invention have completed the present invention as a result of intensive research.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

According to the method for adjusting the board housing portion of the printed board housing rack of the present invention, a plurality of vertical projections are formed on the facing surfaces of the fixed plate and the movable plate that faces the fixed plate, and a large number of ridges are provided between the ridges. In a printed circuit board storage rack configured to hold a printed circuit board at a constant interval, (A) a fixed plate of the rack is preceded by a fixed plate to adjust a space of a circuit board storage section composed of the fixed plate and the movable plate. A step of fixing the rack by contacting an outer clamp member for clamping, and clamping the fixing plate by the outer clamp member and an inner clamp member protruding inside the fixing plate to fix the rack.

(B) While the rack is fixed, the position of the movable plate is searched and confirmed by the clamp member for clamping the movable plate, and the tip of the driver is brought close to the fixing bolt of the movable plate, and then the movable plate constitutes the clamp member. A step of clamping with an inner clamp member and an outer clamp member.

(C) A step of loosening the fixing bolt of the movable plate screwed to the rack by the driver, and then moving the movable plate to a predetermined position together with the clamped driver.

(D) A step of tightening a fixing bolt of the movable plate by the driver to fix the movable plate at the set position, and thereafter, removing the approach of the driver and each clamp of the fixed plate and the movable plate.

Is carried out in sequence.

On the other hand, the adjusting device for the board housing portion of the printed board housing rack has a plurality of printed lines formed between the fixed plate and the movable plate that faces the fixed plate, in which a plurality of printed lines are formed. In a printed circuit board storage rack configured to hold boards at regular intervals, in order to adjust the distance between the fixed plate and the movable plate, (E) an outer clamp member that comes into contact with the preceding outer surface of the fixed plate of the rack by operation. And a fixed plate clamp mechanism configured by an inner clamp member that protrudes inward of the fixed plate and cooperates with the outer clamp member to clamp the fixed plate when the outer clamp member is in operation.

(F) An inner clamp member for projecting to the inside of the movable plate in a state where the fixed plate is clamped, for inspecting and contacting the position of the movable plate, and an inside clamp for projecting to the outside of the movable plate. A movable plate clamp mechanism including an outer clamp member that clamps a movable plate in cooperation with a member.

(G) A driver mechanism which is linked to the operation of the movable plate clamp mechanism (F) and is configured so that the set bolt of the movable plate in the clamped state can be loosened and tightened by the equipped driver.

(H) The movable plate clamp mechanism (F) is replaced with the driver mechanism (G)
A moving mechanism for moving to a desired set position with.

It is characterized by comprising each mechanism of.

[Action]

The method of adjusting the board storage portion in the printed board storage rack of the present invention is specifically performed by using the apparatus of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1. The operation sequence of this apparatus will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The explanation is as follows.

The rack 100 is placed on the workbench 2 of the adjusting device 1 such that the fixed plate 108 precedes the movable plate 110, and the fixed plate 108 is clamped by the fixed plate clamp mechanism II.

That is, the pair of left and right outer clamp members 4a arranged on the upper part of the adjusting device 1 and the pair of left and right outer clamp members 4b arranged on the lower part are projected from both sides of the adjusting device 1 and the fixing plate 108 is provided.
After contacting the outer surface of the rack 1, a pair of left and right inner clamp members 5a arranged on the upper part of the adjusting device 1 and a pair of left and right inner clamp members 5b arranged on the lower part are attached to the inside of the fixing plate 108 from both sides of the rack 100. Projecting toward the outer clamp member 4a,
The fixing plate 108 is clamped in cooperation with 4b, and thereby the rack 100 itself is fixed to the adjusting device 1. (Fig. 2 (a)
The operation of such a fixed plate clamp mechanism II is to operate the air cylinders 6a, 6
done by b.

When the process of clamping the fixed plate 108 with the fixed plate clamp mechanism II is completed, the movable plate clamp mechanism III operates to clamp the movable plate 110 and temporarily fix the movable plate.

That is, the movable plate clamp mechanism III is replaced by the driver mechanism IV.
It moves with it to search and confirm the position of the movable plate 110.
Inside of 10, a pair of left and right inner clamp members 7a arranged in the upper part and a pair of left and right inner clamp members 7b arranged in the lower part
While protruding from both sides of the rack 100 to the inside of the movable plate 110 and contacting the inside of the movable plate 110, at the same time outside the movable plate 110, a pair of left and right outer clamp members 8a disposed on the upper side and a pair of left and right outer clamp members disposed on the lower side. The outer clamp member 8b is the rack 10
The movable plate 110 is projected from both sides of 0 to the outside of the movable plate 110, and the movable plate 110 is clamped in cooperation with the inner clamp members 7a and 7b to temporarily fix the movable plate to that position. (See FIG. 2 (a)) Next, while the movable plate 110 is clamped, the movable plate 110 moves along with the movable plate clamp mechanism III, and the stop bolt of the movable plate 110 is moved.
Drivers 10a, 10b of the driver mechanism V located close to 115, 116 loosen the stop bolts (corresponding to 115, 116 in FIG. 3).

When the process of loosening the set bolts 115, 116 is completed and the movable plate 110 becomes free with respect to the rack 100, the movable plate clamp mechanism III is movable until the clamp members 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b inside and outside are clamped. The plate 110 is moved to a position corresponding to the size of the printed circuit board to be housed, for example, to the right as shown by the arrow in FIG. 2 (a), and directly to a predetermined position shown in FIG. 2 (b).

At this time, the driver mechanism IV is also the movable plate clamp mechanism II.
The movable plate 110 moves along with I, and the set bolts 115 and 116 loosened at a predetermined position of the movable plate 110 are tightened to fix the movable plate 110.

The loosening and tightening operation of the stop bolts 115, 116 by the driver mechanism IV allows the driver members 10a, 10b to detect the correct positions of the set screws, and the air cylinders 9a, 9b move the driver members 10a, 10b up and down toward the stop bolts. The set bolt is loosened and tightened with a constant tightening torque.

Moving the movable plate clamp mechanism III and the driver mechanism IV
It is performed by the moving mechanism V.

The moving mechanism V includes a pair of upper and lower drive shafts 11a and 11b formed of ball screws, a motor 14 having a position detecting function, and a pulley.
It is configured to rotate in the same direction via 13a, 13b and the belt 12, and the pair of left and right movable plate clamp mechanisms II
The I and the driver mechanism IV are connected to the drive shaft 11a in the upper part and to the drive shaft 11b in the lower part, and give a given rotation to each drive shaft by controlling the rotation speed and the rotation angle of the motor 14, The movable plate clamp mechanism III and the driver mechanism IV are configured to be moved by a predetermined amount.

Then, the position of the movable plate 110 is searched and confirmed by a position detecting sensor such as a photoelectric sensor, and moved by the moving mechanism V, and the clamped movable plate 110 is moved to a predetermined position according to the size of the printed circuit board. The movement is performed by presetting a displacement amount from the position of the clamped fixed plate 108 and rotating the motor 14 with a position detecting function so as to match the set value.

Movable plate 1 for side plates 101, 102 by driver mechanism IV
When the screw fixing of 10 is completed, the driver member 10a,
10b moves away from the rack, and the fixed plate 108 and the movable plate 11
Clamping of the rack 100 by the fixed plate clamp mechanism II and the movable plate clamp mechanism III, which have respectively fixed 0, is released, the rack 100 is taken out from the adjusting device 1 and separated from the workbench 2, and the interval adjusting work is completed. .

The workbench 2 on which the rack 100 is placed to perform the above-mentioned operations may be of a belt conveyor type or a roller conveyor type.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the adjusting device for the board housing portion in the rack for housing a printed board according to the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The adjusting device 1 includes a workbench 2 on which the rack 100 shown in FIG. 3 is placed, and a fixing plate clamp mechanism II for clamping the fixing plate 108 constituting the rack 100 to fix the rack 100 at a predetermined position. And a movable plate clamp mechanism III for clamping the movable plate 110 constituting the rack 100, and loosening the locking bolt of the movable plate 110 mounted on the rack 100 to make it movable, and tightening the locking bolt to change the movable state to the fixed state. The driver mechanism IV includes a driver for moving the movable plate 110, the movable plate clamp mechanism III, and the moving mechanism V for moving and fixing the movable plate 110 at the set position. .

The rack 100 is mounted on the workbench 2 such that the ridges 107 and 109 formed facing the fixed plate 108 and the movable plate 110 are horizontal, and the fixed plate 108 is ahead and the movable plate 110 is behind. To do.

The fixed plate clamp mechanism II is arranged at the left end of the adjusting device 1 and moves up and down by an air cylinder 6a provided on the upper part thereof, and a pair of left and right outer clamp members 4a which perform a predetermined operation.
And a pair of left and right outer clamp members 4b that move up and down by an air cylinder 6b provided in the lower part to perform a predetermined operation, and inner clamp members 5a, 5b arranged near these outer clamp members 4a, 4b. There is.

The outer clamp members 4a and 4b project from the upper and lower positions of both side surfaces of the rack 100 toward the outside of the fixed plate 108 and come into contact therewith, and clamp the fixed plate 108 in cooperation with the inner clamp members 5a and 5b to rack the rack. It is configured to fix 100.

The inner clamp members 5a and 5b are configured so as to project from the upper and lower positions of both side surfaces of the rack 100 to the inner side of the fixed plate 108 by an air cylinder and to be retracted, and cooperate with the outer clamp members 4a and 4b by the protrusion. The rack 100 is fixed by clamping the fixing plate 108.

The movable plate clamp mechanism III projects inside the rack 100,
In addition, a pair of left and right inner clamp members 7 configured to be retracted to the original position are arranged above, and a pair of left and right inner clamp members 7b are arranged below, and similarly project outside the movable plate 110. , And a pair of left and right outer clamp members 8a configured to be pulled back to the original position,
Further, a pair of left and right outer clamp members 8b are respectively arranged below, and both can be reciprocally moved in the front-rear direction (left and right in the drawing) by a moving mechanism V described later.

These inner clamp members 7a, 7b and outer clamp members 8a,
The movement of the movable plate 110 of 8b is performed by the inner clamp members 7a, 7b.
Is projected to the inside of the movable plate 110 and abuts the movable plate 110, and the outer clamp members 8a and 8b are similarly projected to the outside of the movable plate 110 and abutted to clamp the movable plate 110 by both.

The driver mechanism IV has a function of loosening or tightening the set bolts 115 and 116 of the movable plate 110 screwed to the upper and lower side plates 101 and 102 of the rack 100, and a pair of left and right upper driver members 10a that move up and down by the air cylinder 9a. Similarly, a pair of left and right lower driver members 10 that move up and down by the air cylinder 9b.
It consists of b and.

The movable plate clamp mechanism III and the driver mechanism IV can be moved within a predetermined range by the moving mechanism V.

This moving mechanism V is composed of a ball screw, and is vertically 1
A pair of drive shafts 11a, 11b is connected to a motor 14 with a position detecting function via pulleys 13a, 13b, and a belt 12, and the movable plate clamp mechanism III and the driver mechanism IV are
It is connected to 1a and 11b, and is configured to detect a preset position and directly move by controlling the number of rotations and the rotation angle of the motor 14 with a position detection function.

The movement of the movable plate clamp mechanism III and the driver mechanism IV for fixing the movable plate 110 at the set position is set as a displacement amount from the fixed plate 108 clamped by the fixed plate clamp mechanism II, and with respect to this set value. It is configured to directly move and stop the movable plate 100 at a predetermined position.

Movable plate 11 by adjusting device 1 consisting of such II-V mechanism
The adjustment method and operation of 0 are as described in the previous section.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to a method of adjusting a board storage unit in a rack for storing a printed circuit board according to the present invention, a movable plate is clamped and temporarily fixed by moving a fixed plate of the rack for adjusting the position of the movable plate. This is accomplished by loosening the plate fixing bolts with a screwdriver, moving the movable plate to a preset position, then tightening the fixing bolts with the screwdriver, and removing each clamp of the rack.

Therefore, when a rack formed to accommodate printed boards of different sizes changes the size of the storage portion depending on the size of the printed boards, the method of the present invention can perform adjustment work automatically and efficiently. It is possible.

On the other hand, the adjusting device of the board storing portion in the rack for storing printed boards according to the present invention includes a fixed plate clamp mechanism for clamping and fixing the fixed plate of the rack to be adjusted, a movable plate clamp mechanism for clamping the movable plate of the rack, A driver mechanism provided with a driver for loosening the fixing bolt of the movable plate fixed to the rack to make it movable and tightening the fixing bolt to change the movable state to the fixed state, and the movable plate clamping mechanism and the driver mechanism together. It is configured by a moving mechanism for moving.

Therefore, the adjustment of the distance between the fixed plate and the movable plate does not need to be manually measured and changed for each rack, so that the working time for the adjustment can be greatly saved and its certainty can be ensured. Together with this, it is possible to bring a great improvement in efficiency to the work.

In addition, this adjusting device eliminates the extra step of moving the movable plate to the predetermined position after moving the movable plate to the maximum allowable width, and directly moves the clamped movable plate to the predetermined position. It is extremely efficient because it can be incorporated manually or automatically into the production line of printed circuit boards or the production line of electronic equipment using printed circuit boards to automatically adjust the distance between movable plates, which makes it inexpensive and highly versatile. There are many merits such as the provision of a device having the property.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing an example of an adjusting device for a board storage portion in a printed board storage rack of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic view for explaining the structure and process of the device for adjusting a movable plate in the rack. FIG. 4A is a plan view showing a clamped state of a fixed plate and a movable plate, FIG. 7B shows a state when the movable plate is moved, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of a rack applied to the adjusting device of the present invention. 1 ... Adjusting device, 2 ... Workbench 4a, 4b ... Outer clamp member for fixed plate clamp 5a, 5b ... Inner clamp member for fixed plate clamp 7a, 7b ... Inner clamp member for movable plate clamp 8a, 8b …… Outer clamp member for clamp of movable plate 10a, 10b …… Driver member 11a, 11b …… Drive shaft 14 …… Motor 100 …… Rack 101,102 …… Side plate 108 …… Fixed plate 110 …… Movable plate 115,116 ...... Set bolt II …… Fixed plate clamp mechanism III …… Movable plate clamp mechanism IV …… Driver mechanism V …… Movement mechanism

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A print in which a plurality of printed circuit boards are engraved in upper and lower stages on opposing surfaces of a fixed plate and a movable plate which faces the fixed plate, and a large number of printed circuit boards are held at regular intervals between the projected lines. In the substrate storage rack, the space adjustment of the substrate storage unit composed of the fixed plate and the movable plate is performed by the following (A).
A method for adjusting a board storage unit in a rack for storing a printed circuit board, which is performed sequentially according to the steps (D) to (D). (A) The fixing plate of the rack is advanced to come into contact with the outer clamping member for clamping the fixing plate, and the fixing plate is clamped by the outer clamping member and the inner clamping member protruding inside the fixing plate to fix the rack. Process. (B) While the rack is fixed, the position of the movable plate is searched and confirmed by the clamp member for clamping the movable plate, and the tip of the driver is brought close to the fixing bolt of the movable plate, and then the movable plate constitutes the clamp member. A step of clamping with an inner clamp member and an outer clamp member. (C) A step of loosening the fixing bolt of the movable plate screwed to the rack by the driver, and then moving the movable plate to a predetermined position together with the clamped driver. (D) A step of tightening a fixing bolt of the movable plate by the driver to fix the movable plate at the set position, and thereafter, removing the approach of the driver and each clamp of the fixed plate and the movable plate. 2. A printed structure in which a plurality of printed circuit boards are engraved in upper and lower stages on the facing surfaces of a fixed plate and a movable plate which faces the fixed plate, and a large number of printed circuit boards are held at regular intervals between the projected lines. The board storage rack is provided with the following mechanism (E) to (H) for adjusting the distance between the fixed plate and the movable plate. . (E) An outer clamp member that comes into contact with the preceding outer surface of the fixing plate of the rack by the operation, and an inner side that protrudes inside the fixing plate and clamps the fixing plate in cooperation with the outer clamp member when the outer clamp member is in the operating state. A fixed plate clamp mechanism configured by a clamp member. (F) An inner clamp member for projecting to the inside of the movable plate in a state where the fixed plate is clamped, and for inspecting and contacting the position of the movable plate, and an inner clamp for projecting to the outside of the movable plate. A movable plate clamp mechanism including an outer clamp member that clamps a movable plate in cooperation with a member. (G) A driver mechanism which is linked to the operation of the movable plate clamp mechanism (F) and is configured so that the set bolt of the movable plate in the clamped state can be loosened and tightened by the equipped driver. (H) The movable plate clamp mechanism (F) is replaced with the driver mechanism (G)
A moving mechanism for moving to a desired set position with.