JP2008260594A - Part conveying device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a part conveying device capable of stably conveying parts to a visual checking position without displacement when workpieces such as chip parts supplied for the visual checking with, for example, image processing are located and conveyed on a conveying table. <P>SOLUTION: This device comprises a part feeder (2) for aligning and sequentially conveying a plurality of workpieces, and charging the workpieces through this conveyance, a conveying table (3) for locating the workpieces supplied from the part feeder and conveying them to a predetermined working position, and a charger (7) charging the conveying table with polarity opposite to the workpieces and electrostatically attracting the workpieces to the table surface. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a component conveying apparatus capable of stably conveying a workpiece such as a chip component to be used for appearance inspection by image processing to an inspection position.

  For the appearance inspection of chip parts having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape with a size of, for example, about 1 to 2 mm mounted on a printed circuit board or the like at high density, a rotary table is exclusively arranged by aligning a plurality of chip parts using a parts feeder. This is performed by sequentially supplying the upper parts, picking up images of the chip parts that are mounted on the rotary table and transported by a camera, and determining the quality by image processing [see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2].

At this time, various ideas have been made so far in order to inspect each of the six surfaces of the chip component. For example, it has been proposed that a rotary table is formed of a transparent body such as glass and the bottom surface (lower surface) side of a chip component placed on the rotary table is imaged through the rotary table [for example, Patent Documents] See 3].
JP 2000-203713 A JP 2004-345859 A JP 2003-139516 A

  However, when the chip component supplied from the parts feeder is placed on the rotary table and conveyed, it cannot be denied that the placement position of the chip component is shifted due to vibration or the like. In particular, when the turntable is formed of a transparent body such as glass so that the bottom surface (lower surface) side of the chip component can be imaged as described above, the chip component is coupled with the smooth surface of the turntable. Are slippery and are likely to be misaligned.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of such circumstances, and its purpose is to cause a positional shift when a work such as a chip part for use in appearance inspection by image processing is placed on a transport table and transported. An object of the present invention is to provide a component conveying apparatus that can stably convey to the above-described appearance inspection position.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the parts conveying apparatus according to the present invention basically uses a parts feeder to align a plurality of workpieces such as chip parts and sequentially conveys them and sends them onto a conveying table such as a rotary table. The work is placed on the transport table and transported to an appearance inspection position or the like,
For example, when a chip part (work) having an alloy of gold and tin as an electronic part material is transported using a stainless steel vibration linear feeder (part feeder), the chip part (work) is accompanied with the transport. The surface of the transfer table is charged with a reverse polarity (minus) with respect to the workpiece by using a charger, whereby the vibrating linear feeder is used to charge the transfer table on the transfer table. The workpiece supplied to is transported by electrostatically attracting the workpiece to the transport table.

That is, the parts conveying apparatus according to the present invention is
<a> A part feeder that aligns a plurality of workpieces and sequentially conveys the workpiece, and charges the workpiece along with the conveyance,
<b> A transport table for placing the work supplied from the parts feeder and transporting the work to a predetermined work position;
<c> The present invention is characterized in that a charging device is provided that charges the transfer table with a polarity opposite to that of the work and electrostatically attracts the work to the surface of the transfer table.

  Preferably, the parts feeder is a vibrating linear feeder that conveys on a rail while vibrating a workpiece made of chip parts, and the conveyance table is a glass rotating table that is used for visual inspection by image processing. Realized. As the charger, for example, an ionizer that is driven by a DC power source and emits negative ions toward the surface of the transfer table is used.

  According to the component conveying apparatus having the above configuration, the workpiece supplied from the parts feeder onto the conveyance table is charged, and the surface of the conveyance table is charged with a polarity opposite to that of the workpiece using a charger. The supplied workpiece can be effectively electrostatically adsorbed and held on the transfer table. As a result, the workpiece can be stably held and conveyed on the conveyance table, and the workpiece can be stably guided to an appearance inspection position by a camera, for example, as the conveyance table is driven (rotated). Become.

In particular, according to the component conveying apparatus according to the present invention, the stable conveyance of the work by the conveying table is realized only by providing a charger for charging the surface of the conveying table, so that the practical advantage is great. The effect that the structure does not become so complicated can be exhibited.
When the transfer table is formed of a glass (for example, soda lime glass) rotary table, the charger is driven by a DC power source and discharges negative ions toward the surface of the rotary table (transfer table) ( By simply using an ionizer that radiates, the surface of the rotary table (conveying table) can be easily charged to a degree sufficient to electrostatically attract the workpiece and stably convey it without causing a positional shift. .

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, taking as an example a component transport apparatus that performs an appearance inspection by image processing while sequentially transporting chipped electronic components (chip components) one by one.
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of a component conveying apparatus according to this embodiment. Reference numeral 1 denotes a plurality of elliptical vibrations having a phase difference between horizontal vibrations and vertical vibrations. A ball feeder that sequentially feeds the chip components P one by one, and 2 is a linear feeder that aligns and transports the chip components P fed from the ball feeder. This linear feeder 2 is provided with a stainless steel rail having a predetermined length extending linearly and a vibrator (drive source) that drives the rail by causing it to vibrate slightly, and a chip guided on the rail. The component is made of a vibration type that conveys the chip component P by displacing the component in one direction along the rail by the vibration of the rail. The linear feeder 2 plays a role of supplying the chip components P one by one on the turntable 3 one by one.

  Now, the turntable 3 places chip parts P sequentially fed from the linear feeder 2 constituting the parts feeder together with the ball feeder 1 in the vicinity of the peripheral portion thereof, and the rotation direction of the turntable 3 ( It is a transport body that transports the chip components P in the circumferential direction, and is made of, for example, a transparent disk body made of soda-lime glass with a diameter of about 250 mm. Cameras 4a and 4b are provided along the circumferential direction of the turntable 3 to take an image of the chip component P placed on the turntable 3 and use it for appearance inspection by image processing. Air nozzles 5 and 6 are provided which are selectively driven according to the determination result and discharge the chip component P placed on the turntable 3 to the outside of the turntable 3. The chip parts blown out of the rotary table 3 by the high-pressure air blown from the air nozzles 5 and 6 are collected by a component chute (not shown) provided to face the air nozzles 5 and 6. It is like that.

  Here, the chip part placed on the turntable 3 through the first camera 4a for imaging the upper surface of the chip part P placed on the turntable 3 and the turntable 3 made of a transparent disk. An appearance inspection apparatus provided with a second camera 4b that images the lower surface of P is shown. However, in addition to the first and second cameras 4a and 4b, a camera for imaging the front end surface and the rear end surface of the chip component P and both side surfaces of the chip component P is provided along the circumferential direction of the turntable 3, respectively. Of course, it is also possible to provide them. Then, each of the surfaces of the chip component P may be imaged using these plural cameras, and the quality of the chip component P may be determined by integrating the appearance inspection results of these surfaces.

  In addition, the selective driving of the air nozzles 5 and 6 based on the quality determination result of the chip part P by the appearance inspection uses the rotation speed of the rotary table 3 and the cameras 4 a and 4 b in the circumferential direction of the rotary table 3. For example, the timing control is performed under a sequence controller (not shown) according to the appearance inspection position. In other words, the air nozzles 5 and 6 are selectively driven at a timing corresponding to the rotation angle from the appearance inspection position using the cameras 4a and 4b to the installation position of the air nozzles 5 and 6, and thus the appearance inspection is performed. The chip parts P are distributed (selected) according to the determination result.

  Basically, in the component conveying apparatus configured as described above, the present invention is characterized in that one end of the linear feeder 2 on the rotary table 3 is positioned, that is, from the linear feeder 2 to the chip component P. Is that a charger 7 for charging the surface of the rotary table 3 is provided above the component supply position of the rotary table 3 to be supplied one by one. The charger 7 is composed of, for example, an ionizer that is driven by a DC power source and emits (radiates) negative ions toward the surface of the turntable 3, thereby charging the surface of the turntable 3.

  That is, when the above-described chip component P has an electronic component material made of, for example, an alloy of gold and tin, when the chip component P is conveyed using the above-described stainless steel vibrating linear feeder 2, the vibration is not affected. Due to the contact friction between the chip component P and the rail of the linear feeder 2, the surface of the chip component P is positively charged as schematically shown in FIG. The chip component P delivered from the linear feeder 2 is supplied onto the rotary table 3 in a positively charged state.

  Therefore, the charger (ionizer) 7 emits (radiates) negative ions toward the surface of the turntable 3 as shown in FIG. 2 so that the surface of the turntable 3 is opposite to the chip component P. It is charged with polarity (minus). Then, an electrostatic attraction force is generated between the rotary table 3 that is negatively charged and the chip component P that is positively charged and supplied onto the rotary table 3 as described above, thereby rotating the chip component P. The table 3 is electrostatically adsorbed. The turntable 3 rotates while maintaining the electrostatic adsorption state of the chip component P, and conveys the chip component P to a position where the cameras 4a, 4b and the like described above are provided.

  Thus, according to the component conveying apparatus configured as described above, the chip component P is electrostatically attracted and conveyed onto the rotary table 3, so that the unintended misalignment of the chip component P on the rotary table 3 is effective. Can be prevented. Accordingly, the chip part P can be stably conveyed to the imaging positions (appearance inspection positions) by the cameras 4a and 4b as the turntable 3 rotates, so that the appearance inspection processing can be stabilized. Become. In particular, even if the turntable 3 is made of the glass transparent body described above and the surface thereof is generally slippery, the chip component P can be stably adsorbed and held on the surface of the turntable 3. Therefore, the practical advantage in efficiently performing the appearance inspection is great.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above. For example, the conveyance table may be a belt conveyor, and the same can be applied to the case where a synthetic resin or metal conveyance table is used. Furthermore, as a charger, the surface of the transfer table 3 may be charged by using friction with the transfer table 3. Also, depending on the component material of the chip part, it is assumed that it is negatively charged during conveyance by the parts feeder. In such a case, it is sufficient to configure the conveyance table 3 to be positively charged. Further, when the chip component is conveyed using the parts feeder, it is of course possible to positively charge the chip component using a charger different from the above-described charger. In addition, the present invention can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the scope of the invention.

The top view which shows schematic structure of the components conveying apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows typically the mode of electrostatic charging of the rotary table by the charger of the components conveying apparatus shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 Ball feeder (part feeder)
2 Line feeder (part feeder)
3 Rotary table (conveyance table)
4a, 4b Camera (Appearance inspection device)
5,6 Air nozzle 7 Charger (Ionizer)

Claims (3)

A part feeder that aligns a plurality of workpieces and sequentially conveys the workpiece, and charges the workpiece along with the conveyance,
A transport table for placing the work supplied from the parts feeder and transporting the work to a predetermined work position;
A component conveying apparatus comprising: a charger that charges the conveying table with a polarity opposite to that of the workpiece and electrostatically attracts the workpiece to the surface of the conveying table. The parts feeder is a vibration type linear feeder that conveys on a rail while vibrating a work made of chip parts,
The component conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conveyance table is a glass-made rotary table for subjecting the workpiece to an appearance inspection by image processing.   2. The ionizer is an ionizer that is driven by a direct current power source and is supplied from the parts feeder toward the surface of the transfer table and discharges negative ions or positive ions having a polarity opposite to the charged polarity of the workpiece. The component conveying apparatus as described.

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