JPS638154Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (a) Industrial application field The present invention relates to a storage device for board stock used in the assembly process of printed circuit boards.

(B) Prior Art In work lines for inserting and mounting electronic components onto printed circuit boards, a board stocker is often placed in the middle of the process to smooth the production flow. An example of such a stocker is shown in JP-A-53-
This can be found in Japanese Patent Application No. 17969 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 53-44874. Among these, the one described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 53-17969 adopts a structure in which printed circuit boards are stacked one after another in an enclosure, so that the electronic components attached to the boards stacked below are not crushed. , it was necessary to erect pins to serve as supports at the four corners of each board. In this regard, the device described in JP-A No. 53-44874 has a structure in which the edge of the printed circuit board is engaged with a vertical spiral shaft, and the circuit board is held at intervals determined by the spiral pitch. No surface-to-surface contact occurs, so there is no need to erect prop pins. However, this device also has the following problems. In other words, when the printed circuit board is moved up and down, the threads of the helical shaft will continuously rub against a certain part of the side edge of the board. Can not. In addition, the helical shaft must overcome not only the weight of the substrate but also the friction that occurs between it and the substrate, and as the number of substrates it holds increases, the rotational load becomes considerable, so a powerful power source is required. I needed to do it.

It can be said that the stocker described in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 50-13948 solves the above problem.

In other words, with this stocker, the boards are inserted one by one into the shelf inside the storage box, and since the weight of the upper board is not applied to the lower board, there is no need to set support pins at the four corners of the board. do not have. Furthermore, since the substrate is not lifted by a helical shaft, the risk of the screw threads damaging the substrate can be avoided. However, this device also has problems. That is the next point.

1. The number of boards that can be stored is determined by the height of the storage box. By the way, if you want to store boards up to the top shelf of the storage box, the storage box must be at least as high as the conveyor, which naturally limits the number of boards that can be stored.

2. The substrate stocker may be required to receive a substrate from the lower end and simultaneously discharge previously stored substrates from the upper end (or vice versa). With a storage box type stocker, once the boards are placed on the bottom (or top) shelf, the board storage work must be stopped until the storage box has released all the boards and returned. . Therefore, loss time occurs.

(c) Purpose of the invention The present invention provides a storage device that holds printed circuit boards in a vertically stacked manner without contacting each other, which is easy to operate without the risk of damaging the circuit boards. The purpose is to Another object is to provide a device that can be designed to increase the number of board storage. Furthermore, storage from the lower end and release from the upper end proceed simultaneously.
The purpose is to provide something that can be used in a variety of ways.

(d) Structure of the invention In the invention, endless belt-like members having vertically extending conveyance surfaces are arranged in sets with their conveyance surfaces facing each other, and arranged at intervals approximately equal to the width of the printed circuit board. Convex portions for engaging printed circuit boards are formed at regular intervals on the surface of the belt-like member, and by driving each belt-like member synchronously, the printed circuit board can be layered in multiple layers with both side edges supported by the belt-like members. They are designed to be stored one on top of the other.

(E) Embodiment In Fig. 2, 1a, 1b, and 1c are assembly devices for inserting and mounting electronic components onto printed circuit boards;
Numerals a, 2b, and 2c are free-flow conveyors for each workstation, 3 is a printed circuit board flowing on the free-flow conveyor, and 4, 4a, 4b, and 4c are printed circuit board storage devices provided at each joint of the conveyors. Next, the structure of the printed circuit board storage device will be explained with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 5 denotes a belt-like member, on the surface of which protrusions 6 for engaging a printed circuit board are formed at regular intervals, perpendicular to the length direction. The device of the embodiment has four endless belt-like members 5, with the part that should be the conveying surface standing vertically, and the conveying surfaces are arranged in groups of two with a distance between them. They are facing each other. A pair of upper and lower pulleys 7 and 8 constitute the support means for the belt-like member 5.
The same number of pairs as the belt-like members 5 are prepared. Each belt-like member 5 has a pulley 7 supported on shafts 9 and 10,
8 in a tensioned state, and the distance between the opposing conveying surfaces is approximately equal to the width of the printed circuit board 3. The power means for driving the belt-like member 5 is composed of a pulley 12 having teeth that mesh with the printed circuit board engaging protrusion 6 and an electric motor 15. Pulley 12 is attached to drive shaft 11 . The drive shafts 11, 11, which are two parallel to each other corresponding to the arrangement of the belt-like member 5, are connected to the bevel gear 1.
They are connected by transmission means including three pairs and rotate synchronously. One drive shaft 11 is connected to an electric motor 15 via gears 14, 14. A printed circuit board feeding means is arranged below the belt-like member 5. This consists of an elevator-like moving body 21 and a claw 1 supported by this moving body 21 via a rotation shaft 17.
6. Two rotation shafts 17 are provided, each having a pair of pawls 16 fixed thereto. Each rotation shaft 17 is arranged at right angles to the shafts 9, 10 and spaced apart from each other. The pawl 16 extends diagonally downward from the rotating shaft 17 and toward the space surrounded by the belt-like member 5, and has a recess 18 formed at its tip into which the printed circuit board 3 engages. A lever 19 is fixed to the end of the rotating shaft 17, and the free end of this lever 19 is pushed by a tappet 20 to rotate the rotating shaft 17. The rotation shaft 17 is urged to rotate in a direction in which the tips of the opposing claws 16 are separated from each other by a gravitational moment applied to the claws 16 and the lever 19, or by a biasing force such as a spring in addition to this. The movable body 21 supporting the rotation shaft 17 is moved up and down along the ball 22 by a power source (not shown).

Next, the operation will be explained. First, the rotating shafts 17, 17 descend with the distance between the tips of the claws 16 widened.
When reaching the free flow conveyor, the tappet 20 pushes up the lever 19, and the opposing claws 16,
16 to sandwich the edge of the printed circuit board 3. In this state, the movable body 21 is raised, and the claws 16, 16 of the printed circuit board 3 are placed under the printed circuit board engaging protrusion 6 located at the lowest position on the conveyance surface of the belt-like member 5.
Apply the edge that is perpendicular to the edge that is sandwiched between. When the electric motor 15 is driven to synchronously move the conveying surfaces of the opposing belt-like members 5 upward, a new printed circuit board engaging convex portion 6 comes around from the lower surface of the pulley 8 to below the printed circuit board 3. At this point, when the tappet 20 is lowered and the distance between the tips of the opposing claws 16, 16 is widened, the printed circuit board 3 is supported by the printed circuit board engaging protrusion 6. By repeating this operation, the printed circuit boards 3 can be stacked up one after another from the bottom. Furthermore, at this time, the printed circuit boards 3 are held at intervals according to the arrangement pitch of the printed circuit board engaging protrusions 6, and no contact occurs between them. The printed circuit boards 3 held by the belt-like member 5 can be taken out one by one from the bottom by performing the above operation in reverse.

A pull-out claw similar to the claw 16 can also be arranged above the belt-like member 5. This makes it possible to replenish printed circuit boards 3 from below and take them out one by one from above (or vice versa). The printed circuit board 3 held between the receiving end and the discharging end of the belt-like member 5 serves as a buffer stock during the production process. Since the belt-like member 5 is endless, the operations of replenishing and discharging can be performed continuously. The amount of stock is adjusted depending on the length of the belt-like member 5.

In the embodiment, a total of four narrow belt-like members 5 were used, two on each side, but if the width of the belt-like members is made sufficiently wide, it is possible to use two narrow belt-like members, one on each side.

(f) Inventive Idea According to the present invention, a large number of printed circuit boards can be stacked vertically and stored without contacting each other, and the boards are placed on the convex part of the edge belt-like member. Since the board can be raised and lowered while it is placed, there is no concern that the edges of the board will be damaged during the raising and lowering. In addition, since friction between the belt-like member and the substrate does not have to be a problem when raising and lowering the substrate, nimble operation can be achieved with a relatively small amount of power. In addition, since the relative position to the floor does not move up and down like a storage box-type stocker, the height from the floor to the conveyor does not determine the height at which the boards can be stored. In other words, tall storage devices can be designed without restrictions. Furthermore, since it can be used to simultaneously receive substrates from the bottom end and discharge substrates from the top end (or vice versa) without interruption, it has a wide range of applications as a stocker and facilitates the design of production lines.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, with FIG. 1 being a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of the device, and FIG. 2 being a schematic configuration diagram showing the device installed in a free flow conveyor line. 3...Printed circuit board, 5...Endless belt-like member, 6...Protrusion for engaging printed circuit board, 7, 8...
A pair of upper and lower pulleys constituting the hand-holding means, 12,1
1, 15...Pulley, drive shaft, and electric motor constituting the power means, 13, 14...Bevel gears and gears constituting the rotation transmission mechanism in the power means, 21, 16...
...A moving body and a claw constituting a printed circuit board feeding means, 17...A rotation shaft constituting a claw attachment member, 2
0... Tappet constituting engagement and release selection means.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] A plurality of endless belt-like members each having protrusions for engaging a printed circuit board formed at regular intervals on its surface, and a printed circuit board in which at least a portion of the endless belt-like members is perpendicular. a plurality of sets of support means consisting of upper and lower pairs of pulleys that are wrapped around and supported in a substantially vertical direction so as to form a conveyance surface, and whose printed circuit board conveyance surfaces face each other with an interval approximately equal to the width of the printed circuit board; A pulley connected to each of the belt-like members, a drive shaft to which the pulley is attached, and a drive shaft connected to this drive shaft via a rotation transmission mechanism so that the printed circuit board conveying surface moves synchronously in the same direction. a power means constituted by a rotating electric motor; a movable body; and a movable body attached to the movable body via a claw attachment member, which engages the edge of the printed circuit board with the printed circuit board engaging convex portion as the movable body moves. a printed circuit board feeding means constituted by a claw for moving the printed circuit board between the printed circuit board transfer surfaces in order to transfer the printed circuit board, and an engagement and release selection means for engaging or disengaging the claw with the printed circuit board. Printed circuit board storage device.