JPH1085677A - Separating and taking-out device for tablet for ic - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically house the tablets in a tablet feeder into the holding holes of a tablet shuttle after separating (inspecting) these tablets. SOLUTION: Just one piece of the tablet 12 in the tablet feeder 10 is taken into a cylindrical body 32A of a rotor 50 made freely movable forward and backward and rotatable. The tablet is then subjected to a length inspection in the position of a cylindrical body 32B and is then moved to the position of a cylindrical body 32C, from which the tablet is vacuum sucked via a distributor 60 to either of a vacuum hose 40A or 40B and is taken into the holding hole 18A or 18B of the tablet shuttle 16A or 16B. The tablet 12A judged to be defective as a result of the length inspection is discharged in the position of a cylindrical body 32D.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an IC tablet sorting / removing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a lead frame for an IC is sealed with a resin, a cylindrical resin material called a "tablet" for the resin sealing is called a "tablet shuttle" as a pre-process. It is necessary to carry out the work of storing in the holding hole of the storage device.

[0003] Generally, many tablets are stored in a large container called a tablet feeder.
By vibrating the tablet feeder, the tablets in the tablet feeder are taken out in a line near the exit. The extracted tablets are selected one by one and stored in the holding holes of the tablet shuttle one by one as described above.

Conventionally, the inspection and sorting before storing the taken-out tablet has not been performed at all, or has been performed visually by hand.

[0005]

However, since the tablet is taken out while being vibrated by the tablet feeder, a defective tablet having cracks and chips may sometimes be taken out. If such a defective tablet is used for resin sealing as it is, the IC lead frame itself becomes a defective product, so some kind of inspection is essential. However, in the past, this was not rationally automated, but was performed manually by hand.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional problem, and has been developed in consideration of an IC tablet capable of rationally automating the inspection, sorting, and taking out of tablets taken out from a tablet feeder. It is an object of the present invention to provide a sorting / extracting device.

[0007]

According to the present invention, a tablet feeder accommodating a large number of IC tablets is vibrated.
Utilizing the vibration, the tablets in the tablet feeder are aligned in a line near the exit, and in the IC tablet selecting and extracting device for selecting and extracting only non-defective products from the aligned tablets, a disc-shaped rotor and A cylindrical body protruding at a predetermined position near the outer periphery on the disk, and capable of storing only one tablet each, and rotor driving means capable of rotating and stopping the rotor by a predetermined angle, And a means for taking only one tablet into the cylinder, a means for inspecting the quality of the tablet, a means for taking out the tablet selected as a non-defective product, and a method for separating the tablet from the defective product in correspondence with the cylinder stop position of the rotor. This problem has been solved by arranging at least means for discharging the tablet.

In this case, four cylinders are provided on the rotor, and the rotor is driven by rotor driving means.
The tablet is rotated and stopped every degree, and the tablet is moved to the cylindrical body by one corresponding to the four stop positions of the cylindrical body of the rotor.
A means to capture only the individual, a means to check the quality of the tablet,
If means for taking out the tablets selected as non-defective products and means for discharging the tablets selected as defective products are arranged, i) taking in from the tablet feeder, ii) inspection, iii) taking out good products, iV) Defective products can be discharged in order and efficiently.

Further, the rotor can be selectively rotated and stopped by two or more angles by the rotor driving means, and the quality of the tablet is inspected for each specific angle, and the tablet is selected as a non-defective product. When two or more tablets are detected in succession, the tablet is rotated by an angle different from the specific angle for the inspection, and two or more tablets are arranged corresponding to the positions rotated by the different angle. If two or more tablets selected as non-defective products are taken out from the exit at a time, generally two or more non-defective products requiring a lot of time can be taken out at the same time, and the working efficiency can be further improved. .

[0010]

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

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a tablet shuttle storage device to which an IC tablet sorting / extracting device according to the present invention is applied.

The tablet feeder 10 has an unillustrated I
A large number of cylindrical resin materials (tablets) 12 for sealing the C lead frame with resin are accommodated. The tablet feeder 10 can vibrate as a whole. The tablet feeder 10 utilizes this vibration.
The tablets 12 inside can be arranged in a line near the outlet 14 and taken out in order. The structure itself for sequentially taking out the tablets 12 from the tablet feeder 10 in a state of being arranged in a line is a conventionally known structure.

The tablet 12 is a tablet feeder 1
Because it is taken out while being vibrated by 0, not a little resin powder adheres to each tablet 12,
In addition, resin powder is scattered in the vicinity of the outlet 14 to some extent. Therefore, in order to avoid this effect as much as possible, the resin sealing in the present embodiment is performed at a position considerably higher than the outlet 14.

Therefore, the tablet shuttle 16 is also positioned at a high position corresponding to this. In the present embodiment, the holding holes 18 (18A, 18A) of the tablet shuttle 16 (16A, 16B) positioned at this high position are provided.
In order to store the tablet 12 directly in B),
The apparatus includes a vacuum source 20, suction preparation means 30, and a vacuum hose 40 (40A, 40B). This suction preparation means 30 corresponds to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied (described later).

The vacuum source 20 is provided for each of the tablet shuttles 16A and 16B (only the 16A side is shown). The vacuum source 20 mainly includes a conventionally known ejector (vacuum generator) 21, a pump hose 22, and a vacuum box 23, and a holding hole 18A of the tablet shuttle 16A (or 16B).
(Or 18A). Reference numeral 24 in the figure denotes a filter for catching the sucked resin powder. In this embodiment, the vacuum source 20
Although two sets are provided for each of the tablet shuttles 16A and 16B, it is also possible to provide only one set and rotate it as shown by the arrow Z. Alternatively, the tablet shuttles 16A and 16B may be horizontally moved in the direction of the arrow W.

The suction preparing means 30 includes the tablet selecting / removing device according to the present invention,
After inspecting the tablets 12 taken out one by one from the order one by one, only non-defective products are prepared in a state where the vacuum suction by the ejector 21 of the vacuum source 20 is possible.

More specifically, the suction preparing means 30 includes four cylindrical bodies 32 (32A, 32B, 32C, 32C) for accommodating only the earliest tablet 12A sequentially taken out from the outlet 14.
32D) and the cylindrical body 32 containing the foremost tablet 12A is connected to the opening 42 of the vacuum hose 40 (42A, 4D).
2B) and a rotor 50 for moving to 2B).

FIG. 2 shows the rotor 50 viewed from the direction of arrow II in FIG.

As is clear from FIGS. 1 and 2, the rotor 50 is provided with a total of four cylinders 32 capable of accommodating the earliest tablet 12A every 90 °. Rotor 5
Numeral 0 is configured to be able to rotate and stop around the axis A1 at every 90 ° by the geared stepping motor 51, and to be configured to be able to reciprocate along the axis A1 by the air cylinder 53. A predetermined operation is performed every time the rotor 50 rotates 90 ° around the axis A1 while reciprocating along the axis A1.

That is, in the cylindrical body 32A that is now at the lowest position, the work of taking in the earliest tablet 12A sent from the tablet feeder 10 is performed.
Further, a cylindrical body 32B corresponding to a position rotated by 90 ° from now on.
In, a length inspection of the captured tablet 12A is performed. Furthermore, in the cylindrical body 32C positioned at the top, the tablet 12A that has been accepted as a result of the length inspection is used.
Is sucked into the tablet shuttle 16 by suction of the vacuum source 20 by the ejector 21. Further, the cylindrical body 32D at a position further rotated by 90 ° therefrom.
In the result of the length inspection at the position of the cylindrical body 32B,
The rejected tablet 12A is ejected.

In order to perform this operation, each cylinder 32 is provided with an inspection hole 41, and at the position of the cylinder 32A, it is determined that a new first tablet 12A has been taken. A sensor 39 for detecting through the sensor is provided. Further, the cylindrical body 32 of the tablet 12B located next thereto
A holding means 34 for preventing entry into the inside is also provided. The holding means 34 includes an air cylinder 34A, a link mechanism 3
4B, a spring 34C, and a stopper 34D. The tablet 12 sent out from the tablet feeder 10 by pressing the tablet 12B positioned second from the earliest in synchronization with the rotation of the rotor 50.
To stop moving forward. With this configuration, only the first tablet 12A is taken into the cylindrical body 32A. Reference numeral 44
Denotes a stopper pin for stopping the tablet 12A at a predetermined position.

On the other hand, the tablet 1 is located at the position of the cylindrical body 32B.
A rotary encoder 38 for length inspection of 2A is provided.

A distributor (inlet) 60 is disposed at a position corresponding to the cylindrical body 32C. This distributor 6
0 is reciprocable in the horizontal direction (direction of arrow X),
The tablet 12A in the cylindrical body 32C is divided and taken into two tablet shuttles 16A and 16B. for that reason,
The distributor 60 has two vacuum hoses 40A, 40A.
B is connected to each vacuum hose 40A, 40
B is connected to holding holes 18A, 18B of the tablet shuttles 16A, 16B, respectively.

An air hose 45 is opened at the left side of the figure of the position of the cylindrical body 32D. Thus, if the defective tablet 12A comes to the position of the cylindrical body 32D, the defective tablet 12A is discharged by blowing air from the opening of the air hose 45. It should be noted that a pusher capable of pushing out the defective tablet 12A may be provided here instead of the air hose 45.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the vicinity of the holding hole 18A of the tablet shuttle 16A (a sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 1).

FIG. 3 schematically shows the structure near the holding hole 18A. A vacuum hose 40A is connected to a lower portion of the holding hole 18A. On the side surface of the tablet shuttle 16A, a shutter (claw) rotatable around a hinge 70 (see FIG. 1) not shown.
72 is provided, and while the tablet 12A is being sucked by the vacuum source 20, the shutter 72 rotates to form an "open" state, that is, a state in which capture is permitted, and it is detected that the capture has been performed. Then, it is "closed".

Reference numeral 74 denotes the tablet 1 taken in.
A rubber stopper for stopping 2A in the holding hole 18A, and 76 indicates a detection hole of the tablet 12A. The movement of the tablet shuttle 16A in the arrow Y direction is performed by a pulse motor (not shown). In addition, the tablet shuttle 16B also employs exactly the same configuration.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

A large number of tablets 12 stored in the tablet feeder 10 are arranged in a row near the take-out port 14 by utilizing the vibration of the tablet feeder 10 and are sequentially taken out. The operation up to this point is the same as the conventional one.

The earliest tablet 12A sequentially taken out from the outlet 14 is a cylindrical body 32 located at the lowermost part of the rotor 50.
And is positioned at a predetermined position by the stopper pin 44. At the same time, the next tablet 12B is pressed by the stopper 34D of the holding means 34, and is prevented from entering the cylindrical body 32A.

In this state, the tablet 12A in the uppermost cylinder 32C is vacuum-sucked into one of the vacuum hoses 40A or 40B via the distributor 60. The sucked tablet 12A passes through the vacuum hose 40A (or 40B) and is taken into the holding hole 18A (or 18B) in the tablet shuttle 16A (or 16B). ). When the intake of the holding hole 18A (or 18B) of the tablet 12A is detected through the detection hole 76, the shutter 72 is moved to the hinge 7 position.
It is turned around 0 and is closed. Thereafter, the tablet shuttle 16A is moved in the direction of the arrow Y, and the adjacent holding hole 18A is positioned so as to be at a position corresponding to the vacuum hose 40A and the rubber stopper 74 on the vacuum source 20 side.

The resin powder adhering to the tablet 12A is sucked together during the vacuum suction of the tablet 12A and is accumulated on the filter 24. Therefore, the resin powder does not scatter near the tablet shuttle 16A.

The rotor 50 is retracted along the axis A1 by the air cylinder 53, triggered by any of the movements of this series of operations (or counting up of the timer). If the defective tablet 12A is present in the cylindrical body 32D after the retreat, the tablet 12A is discharged by the air from the air hose 45. After the ejection of the defective tablet, the rotor 50 is rotated by 90 ° around its axis A1 by the stepping motor 53, and is advanced again to the original position by the air cylinder 51. During this forward movement, the rotary encoder 38 is positioned at the position of the cylindrical body 32B.
Thus, the length inspection of the tablet 12A is executed. Then, the next tablet 12B, which is newly the first, is taken in again as the first tablet 12A,
The operation for sucking the tablet 12A that has come to the position C is performed.

If the length of the tablet 32A is determined to be defective as a result of the length inspection at the position of the cylindrical body 32B, vacuum suction is applied to the defective tablet 12A even if it reaches the position of the cylindrical body 32C. Is not done. In this specific method, the vacuum ejector 21 may be stopped, or the openings 42A, 4
The distributor 2B may be positioned at an intermediate position with respect to the cylinder 32C, and the distributor 60 itself may function as a stopper. In this case, the progress of the tablet shuttle 16A in the arrow Y direction is also stopped.

The defective tablet that has not been vacuum-sucked is discharged by the air from the air hose 45 when it reaches the position of the cylinder 32D as described above.

In this embodiment, the length inspection at the position of the cylinder 32B is performed using the forward movement, but may be performed using the backward movement.

According to the shuttle storage device of this embodiment, the tablet is stored in the holding hole of the tablet shuttle by the vacuum suction, so that the resin powder attached to the tablet does not scatter. The inside of the entire sealing device can be kept clean. As a result, the incidence of defective ICs can be reduced accordingly.

Further, since the tablet shuttle can be positioned above the resin sealing device from the beginning, not only is it not affected by the resin powder scattered in the vicinity of the tablet feeder, but also the tablet shuttle is not affected. No lifting mechanism is needed to lift the shuttle upwards. Therefore, the device is extremely simplified, and cost reduction and downsizing of the device can be realized.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention.

In the above-described embodiment, four cylinders 32 are provided on the rotor 50, and every time the cylinder is rotated by 90 degrees, take-in, inspection, non-defective product removal (vacuum suction), and defective product discharge are performed. .

However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. For example, FIGS. 4 (A) to 4 (C) or FIGS.
A configuration as shown in FIG. 8 may be employed. First, the example of FIG. 4 will be described.

FIG. 4A shows the state of the cylinder 13 on the rotor 150.
The number of 2 (132A, 132B, 132C, 132D) is four, which is the same as in the above embodiment, but the working order is different. That is, after taking in at the position of the cylindrical body 132A and executing the inspection at the position of the cylindrical body 132B,
The defective product is discharged at the position of, and finally the product is removed by vacuum at the position of the cylindrical body 132D.
According to this embodiment, when a defective product is detected, it is stored to the next position (only during the 90-degree rotation) and discharged therefrom, and then the vacuum suction in the cylindrical body 132D is performed. It can be executed regardless of good or defective products. The movement of the tablet shuttle 16A (16B) in the arrow Y direction is as follows.
What is necessary is just to stop it when the discharge operation at the position of the cylinder 132C is activated.

In FIG. 4B, the number of the cylinders 232 (232A to 232F) on the rotor 250 is increased to six. The rotor 250 rotates 60 degrees at a time. This embodiment is effective, for example, when a lead frame to be sealed with resin is relatively expensive and failure is to be avoided as much as possible. Cylinder 23
Inspection of different contents at three places 2B, 232C and 232D, or double check and torque check of the same contents from different angles is possible. Inspections of different contents include various known non-destructive inspections, for example, using the advance or retreat of the rotor 250 to apply X to the tablet.
If you irradiate the X-ray and receive the X-ray
The inside of the tablet can be inspected along the axial direction.

In FIG. 4C, the number of the cylinders 332 (332A, 332B, 332C) on the rotor 350 is reduced to three. Rotor 350 rotates 120 degrees at a time. In this embodiment, the rotary encoder 38 is arranged at the position of the cylinder 332A, and the length inspection is also performed by utilizing the fact that the rotor 350 retreats after the first take-in by the cylinder 332A. In this embodiment, a large space near the position of the cylindrical body 332B, that is, near the tablet take-out position, can be ensured. Therefore, even when the number of the tablet feeders 16A (16B) becomes four instead of two, for example, the distributor 60 is used. Can be easily changed to a larger one.

As described above, the present invention does not limit the number of the cylinders and the working order to specific ones. Further, as in the embodiment described below, the rotation angle of the rotor does not necessarily have to be constant.

5 to 8 show examples of the embodiment.

In this embodiment, in order to further increase the storage efficiency in the above-described embodiment, the rotor 550 is not required to reciprocate along the axis A1, and a relatively time-consuming non-defective product is taken out (vacuum suction). Are performed at the same time.

As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG.
The first tablet 512A captured at the 2A position
Is rotated 90 ° from here, and stopped at the position of the cylinder 532B.

In this case, the rotor 550 is directly rotated in place (without performing the retreat operation along the axis A1).
As shown in FIG. 7, in this embodiment, unlike the previous embodiment, when taking in at the position of the cylinder 532A, the first tablet 512A is larger than the end of the cylinder 532A by the dimension α.
It is done just to pop out. The presence of this dimension α allows the rotor 550 to rotate in place without retreating and prevents the next tablet 512B from being hooked.

Also, as shown in FIG. 7, air can be introduced into the rotor 550 from the outside through an air intake port 180 and an air pipe 182. An air cylinder 1 utilizing this air is provided near each cylinder 532.
The tablet 84A is disposed to prevent the tablet 512A from jumping out of the respective cylinders 532 when the rotor 550 rotates. Note that reference numeral 186 in the drawing denotes a rubber cap that is placed on the tip of the air cylinder 184.

On the other hand, since the rotor 550 does not reciprocate along the axis A1, this embodiment employs a configuration as shown in FIG. 8 in order to determine the quality of the tablet 512A.

In FIG. 8, the base body 590 is
It is fixed so as to face 50. Shaft 592
8 is movable in the left-right direction of FIG. 8 in the base body 590, and a bearing 594 is rotatably attached to the tip of the shaft 592.

Shaft 592 (and bearing 594)
The tablet 5 receives a biasing force in the left direction in the figure by a spring 596 and a stopper (not shown).
When 12A does not exist, or when there is no specified length due to a defective product or the like, it is positioned near the end face of the cylindrical body 532B.

When the rotor 550 rotates, the tablet 512 is rotated.
When A comes to the position of the cylindrical body 532B, if the tablet 512A is a good product and has a specified length,
The bearing 512 is pushed in the right direction in the figure while rotating by the tablet 512A. Accordingly, by detecting this by the rotary encoder 538, the quality of the tablet can be determined.

Now, assuming that two tablets 512A pass in succession in this way (the passed tablets 512A are at the positions of the cylinders 532B and 532C at this time), the rotor 550 is set at 45 ° therefrom. The outlet 542A, which is rotated only and is fixedly arranged (without passing through a distributor) from the position of the cylindrical bodies 532E1 and 532E2,
Two tablet shuttles 16 directly via 542B
Vacuum suction is performed toward A and 16B (see FIG. 1).

Note that transmission sensors 543A and 543B for confirming that the tablet 512A has passed are disposed near the outlets 542A and 542B.

The rotor 550 does not stop at the position of the cylinders 532E1 and 532E2 (the take-out position) unless two consecutive tablets 512A pass. For example, when the first tablet passes and the second fails, the tablet 512A that passes at this time is the cylinder 532
C position, failed tablet 512A is cylindrical 532B
After the tablet 512A at the position 532C (passed) is returned to the parts feeder 10 (see FIG. 1), the rotor 550 is rotated by 90 °.

As a result, the defective tablet 512A moves to the position of the cylinder 532C, while the inspection of the next tablet 512A that has turned from the position of the cylinder 532A is performed at the position of the cylinder 532B as usual. Here, the cylindrical body 532C
Is inferior, the rotor 550 is further rotated 90 ° therefrom, and the cylindrical body 532D
(As in the previous embodiment).

In this manner, when it is determined that two consecutive passes have been made, that is, when the tablet 512A that has passed both the positions of the cylinders 532C and 532B has been turned, the rotor 550 is rotated by 45 ° therefrom. , Cylindrical body 532E
Two vacuum suctions are simultaneously performed from positions 1, 532E2.

Since the loading and inspection of the first tablet 512A is completed in a short period of time, normally two tablets 512A are continuously transferred to the tablet shuttles 16A and 16B (see FIG. 1) simultaneously by one vacuum operation. be able to. As a result, the sorting-storage efficiency is reduced to about 2
It is possible to double it.

Since other configurations are the same as those of the previous embodiment, the same or similar parts in FIG. 5 to FIG. A duplicate description is omitted.

In this embodiment, an example is shown in which two types of rotation angles are appropriately selected according to the quality of the tablet, but in the present invention, for example, three or more types of rotation angles are appropriately selected. Such a configuration may be adopted.

This makes it possible to inspect, take out, or collect / discharge a plurality of tablets sequentially (one by one) at a very high degree of freedom.

[0064]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An excellent effect is obtained that the tablet taken out from the tablet feeder can be taken out after being inspected and sorted by a simple and efficient method.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an overall outline of a tablet shuttle storage device to which an IC tablet sorting / unloading device according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of the rotor viewed from the direction of arrow II in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an arrangement configuration of a cylindrical body according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing an arrangement configuration of a cylindrical body according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory perspective view schematically showing the vicinity of a rotor according to the embodiment of FIG. 5;

7 is a sectional view taken along the line VII-VII of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view for explaining inspection by the rotary encoder according to the embodiment of FIG. 5;

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Tablet Feeder 12 Tablet 12A First Tablet 12B Next Tablet 14 Outlet 16 (16A, 16B) Tablet Shuttle 18 (18A, 18B) Holding Hole 20 Vacuum Source 24 Filter 30 Suction Preparation means (sorting / extracting device) 32 (32A, 32B, 32C, 32D) ... cylindrical body 40 (40A, 40B) ... vacuum hose 42 (42A, 42B) ... opening 50 ... rotor 72 ... shutter 74 ... rubber stopper

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A tablet feeder accommodating a large number of IC tablets is vibrated, and the tablets in the tablet feeder are aligned in a line near an exit using the vibration, and only non-defective products are selected from the aligned tablets. A disc-shaped rotor, a disc-shaped rotor, and a cylindrical body protrudingly formed at a predetermined position near the outer periphery of the disc and capable of accommodating only one tablet each, A rotor driving means capable of rotating and stopping the rotor by a predetermined angle; and means for taking in only one tablet into the cylinder corresponding to the cylinder stop position of the rotor, inspecting the quality of the tablet Means for removing tablets selected as good products, and means for discharging tablets selected as defective products. Screening and unloading device for IC tablets. 2. The rotor according to claim 1, wherein four of said cylinders are provided on said rotor, and said rotor is rotated by 90 degrees by said rotor driving means.
Stopping is possible, and means for taking in only one tablet into the cylinder, means for inspecting the quality of the tablet, and taking out a tablet selected as a non-defective product corresponding to the four stop positions of the cylinder of the rotor. And a means for discharging a tablet that has been selected as a defective product. 3. The tablet device according to claim 1, wherein the rotor can be selectively rotated / stopped by two or more angles by the rotor driving means, and the quality of the tablet is inspected at each specific angle. When two or more non-defective tablets are continuously detected, the tablet is rotated by an angle different from the specific angle for the inspection, and is arranged corresponding to the position rotated by the different angle. An IC tablet sorting / unloading device, wherein two or more tablets selected as non-defective products are taken out at once from two or more tablet outlets.