JPH0217402B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Field of Industrial Application" The present invention relates to an article storage device for storing articles in an article storage section.

"Prior Art" Conventionally, as an article storage device for storing articles in an article storage section, the articles are fed onto a support member and supported by the support member, and then the articles supplied and supported on the support member can be raised and lowered. When the supporting member is retracted from the movement trajectory of the insertion head, the insertion head is lowered and the article held thereon is stored in the article storage section below. something is known.

In this type of article storage device, the supporting member is usually retracted from the movement trajectory of the insertion head by rotating or moving diagonally downward in a straight line, and the retracting operation of the supporting member is performed. At the same time, or after the support member is retracted from the movement trajectory, the lifting head is lowered.

``Problems to be Solved by the Invention'' However, depending on the configuration of the article conveying means for supplying articles onto the support member, it may not be possible to reliably store the articles held by the lifting head in the article storage section. It was hot.

That is, the article conveying means conveys the articles along the guide in a state in which they are in contact with each other, supplies the articles onto a support member provided in front of the guide, and supplies the articles at a predetermined interval in front of the guide. If the article is configured to stop the advance of the article by coming into contact with a stopper provided in the open space, there is a possibility that at least one of the articles in contact with each other may have a burr and the burr may spread to the other article. In the case of interference, when an object is held in the insertion head and lowered, the burr may cause the object held in the insertion head to displace greatly or fall off. In some cases, it was not possible to reliably store the articles in the lower article storage section.

``Means for Solving the Problems'' In view of such circumstances, the present invention provides a method to ensure that the articles held by the insertion head can be reliably accommodated in the article storage section even if the article conveying means having the above configuration is provided. The object of the present invention is to provide an article accommodating device.

That is, the article storage device of the present invention includes an article conveying means for conveying articles along a guide in a state in which they are in contact with each other; a stopper that comes into contact with the article to stop its advancement; a support member that is movable up and down that supports the bottom of the article pushed out from the guide tip between the guide tip and the stopper; and a storage tape below the support member. a storage tape feeding device that intermittently conveys and supplies the storage tape and stops an article storage section provided on the storage tape at a position directly below the support member; The insertion head, which is accommodated in the article storage section and can be raised and lowered, and the insertion head and the support member are lowered together by a required distance with the article sandwiched between them, and the support member is moved the required distance. and a lifting/lowering drive means for retracting the support member from the movement locus of the insertion head when the support member is lowered by a certain amount.

``Function'' According to such a configuration, even when the article held by the insertion head and lowered is about to be displaced with respect to the insertion head due to burrs or the like, the article will be moved between the insertion head and the support member. Since the article is lowered while being held between Become.

"Example" The present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated example.
In FIGS. 1 and 2, the upper surface of a machine frame 1 formed into a generally rectangular parallelepiped shape serves as a support stand 2, and an article storage device 3 is provided on this support stand 2. As shown in FIG. 3, this article storage device 3 has a storage tape 4 in which article storage portions 4a are formed in a row at regular intervals along the longitudinal direction, and a small and lightweight container is placed in each article storage portion 4a from above. It is adapted to accommodate articles 5, such as chip transistors, chip resistors, etc., which are mounted on a printed circuit board.

The machine frame 1 is provided with an operation panel 6 on the front upper part of the support stand 2 for controlling the operation of the article storage device 3, and a lower part of the operation panel 6 is recessed toward the depth side of the operation panel 6. By forming a recess 7 and arranging the first supply reel 8 wound with the storage tape 4 in the recess 7, the first supply reel 8 is positioned below the article storage device 3. There is.

The storage tape 4 pulled out from the first supply reel 8 is pulled out upward through an opening 9 formed in the support stand 2 at a position deeper than the operation panel 6 and below the article storage device 3, and further At a position in front of the article storage device 3, that is, at a position on the left side in FIG. 1, it is horizontally curved to the right and supplied to the article storage device 3.

The frame 10 of the article storage device 3 is provided with a second supply reel 12 wound with a sealing tape 11 above the article storage device 3, and the sealing tape is pulled out from the second supply reel 12. 11
Each article storage section 4 is
The article 5 is superimposed on the upper surface of the containing tape 4 in which the article 5 is housed. Then, the sealing tape 1
1 is heated by a heater 13 to thermally weld it to the accommodation tape 4, the opening of the article storage section 4a is sealed, and the article 5 is sealed inside.

Further, a take-up reel 14 is provided on the right side of the frame 10 of the article storage device 3, and by rotating this take-up reel 14 with a motor 15, the article 5 is sealed with the storage tape 4. is wound onto a take-up reel 14.

As described above, by locating the first supply reel 8 below the article storage device 3, the overall width of the entire article packaging device can be made smaller than when it is provided on the left side of the article storage device 3. Moreover, since there is sufficient space below the operation panel 6, it is possible to increase the size of the first supply reel 8.

Since the storage tape 4 from the first supply reel 8 is delivered to the article storage device 3 through the opening 9, the storage tape 4 is once pulled out to the left side of the machine frame 1 without passing through the opening 9, and then the article is stored. The transport path of the storage tape 4 can be simplified compared to the case where the storage tape 4 is delivered to the storage device 3. In addition, since the operation panel 6 is placed on the front of the machine frame 1 as in the past,
The operability of the article storage device 3 is not impaired. Note that a cover may be attached to the front surface of the recess 7.

Next, a description will be given of the storage tape feeding device 20 that intermittently conveys the storage tape 4 by a fixed amount, that is, for each pitch of the article storage section 4a.In FIG. A pulley with claws 23 attached to the rotating shaft 22 of the torque motor 24, and a pulley with claws 26 attached to the rotating shaft 25 of the torque motor 24. Engagement hole 4b for positioning provided (see Figure 3)
is engaged with.

The claw pulley 23 of the pulse motor 21 is disposed at the left entrance of the article storage device 3, and the claw pulley 23 horizontally moves the storage tape 4 pulled upward from the first supply reel 8. It is bent to Also, the claw pulley 26 of the torque motor 24
is arranged at the left exit of the article storage device 3 at the same height position as the claw pulley 23, and the storage tape 4 is moved from the claw pulley 23 to the claw pulley with the opening of the article storage section 4a facing upward. 26 so that it can be transported almost horizontally.

The operation of the pulse motor 21 is controlled by a control device (not shown), so that the accommodation tape 4 from the first supply reel 8 can be intermittently delivered to each pitch of the article accommodation section 4a. . On the other hand, the torque motor 24 always pulls the accommodation tape 4 sent out by the pulse motor 21, and always applies a constant tension to it. Further, a tension roller 27 is provided between the claw pulley 23 and the claw pulley 26, and the tension roller 27 is provided between the claw pulley 23 and the claw pulley 26. It is possible to prevent the accommodation tape 4 from loosening between the pulley 23 and the claw pulley 26.

By the way, the control device (not shown) that controls the pulse motor 21 supplies pulses to the pulse motor 21 and rotates the pulse motor 21 by an amount corresponding to the amount of supplied pulses. If only the number of pulses required for the rotating shaft 22 and the claw pulley 23 to rotate by the required rotation angle is supplied to the 21, if the claw pulley 23 does not stop at the correct stop position, the error will be reduced. Since the error is accumulated in the stopping position of the next claw pulley 23, it becomes difficult in practice to use such a simple pulse motor 21.

Therefore, in this embodiment, in order to accurately send out the required amount of the storage tape 4, a disk 3 is attached to the rotating shaft 22 of the pulse motor 21, as shown in FIG.
In the illustrated embodiment, slits 31 are formed in the disk 30 at four locations at 90° intervals so that the slits 31 can be detected by a detector 32 such as a phototube.

That is, in this embodiment, by rotating the disk 30 by 1/4, the storage tape 4 can be fed out by the pitch of the article storage section 4a via the claw pulley 23. Then, the detector 32 for detecting the slit 31 is moved to a position shifted approximately 45 degrees from the stop position of the slit 31. In other words, after the detector 32 detects the slit 31, the pulse motor 21 is sufficiently decelerated. Their positions are shifted so that they have as much time as possible.

Therefore, in this embodiment, when the control device receives the detection signal of the slit 31 from the detector 32, it starts counting the number of pulses supplied to the pulse motor 21, and the count value is determined by the number of pulses supplied to the pulse motor 21. The pulse motor 21 is stopped when the number of pulses reaches the position where it should be stopped properly.

As a result, even if the pulse motor 21 deviates from its normal position and stops, the next pulse motor 21
Since the stop position is based on the next detected slit 31, the error in the stop position will not be accumulated in the error in the next stop position, and moreover, the Pulse motor 2
1 can be decelerated, the article storage section 4a of the storage tape 4 can be accurately stopped at a predetermined position.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1, on the support stand 2 of the machine frame 1, on the left side of the article storage device 3, the articles 5 that have been thrown in at random are arranged in a line in a predetermined direction. A sorter 35 is provided, and the sorter 35 and the article storage device 3 are connected to an article conveying means 36.
It is connected with

This article conveying means 36 includes a guide 37 that continuously guides the articles 5 arranged in a line by the sorter 35 in a state in which they are brought into contact with each other back and forth, and a vibration mechanism 38 that vibrates the guide 37. By vibrating the guide 37 with this vibration mechanism 38, a linear force is constantly applied to the article 5 within the guide 37. In addition, the above sorter 3
Since the vibration mechanism 5 and the vibration mechanism 38 are already well known, a detailed explanation of their configuration will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 4, the tip of the guide 37 is located above the claw pulley 23 of the pulse motor 21 and slightly beyond it to the right, that is, between the claw pulleys 23 and 26. The holding tape 4 is disposed above the holding tape 4 and close to the claw pulley 23. An air injection port (not shown) is provided at the tip of the guide 37, so that the article can be reliably pushed forward by the air ejected from the air injection port.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the guide 37
A stopper 42 is disposed in front of the guide 37 at an interval slightly wider than the length of the article 5 in the conveying direction, and the stopper 42 abuts on the article 5 pushed out from the guide 37 to stop its advancement, and the tip of the guide 37 and the stopper 42
Article 5 pushed out from the guide tip between
A support member 43 for supporting the bottom of the support member 43 is provided, and an insertion head 44 is provided above the support member 43 and is movable up and down to abut the stopper 42 and hold the article supported on the support member 43 by suction. There is.

The support member 43 and the insertion head 44 are respectively raised and lowered by lifting drive means 45 shown in FIG.
The article storage device 3 includes an elevating member 46 provided on the frame 10 so as to be movable up and down, and a motor 47 for elevating and lowering the elevating member 46.

The insertion head 44 is connected to the elevating member 46.
The elevating member 46 is normally held at the upper end position by a spring 48. Also,
A cam 50 is attached to the rotating shaft 49 of the motor 47, and by engaging the cam 50 with a cam follower 51 provided on the elevating member 46,
When the motor 47 is rotated, the elevating member 46 and therefore the insertion head 44 can be lowered against the spring 48 via the cam 50 and the cam follower 51.

Further, the insertion head 44 is formed with a negative pressure passage 52 for suctioning and holding the article 5.
This negative pressure passage 52 is communicated with a negative pressure source via an electromagnetic on-off valve (not shown) for attracting and releasing the article 5. Further, the lower end of the insertion head 44 has a rectangular horizontal cross section and is set slightly smaller than the plane of the article 5 (see FIG. 7).
When the article 5 stopped by the stopper 42 is held by suction and stored in the lower article accommodating section 4a, the insertion head itself is used as a stopper to prevent the subsequent article 5 from moving forward.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the support member 43 includes a rod-shaped portion 43a extending vertically and having a rectangular cross section, and a receiving portion 43b extending horizontally from the lower end of the rod-shaped portion 43a. The receiving portion 43b is adapted to receive the article 5 pushed out from the guide 37.

As shown in FIG. 8, the support member 43
is rotatably supported by the lift member 46 and the support member 42 and the lift member 46.
Normally, the receiving part 43b is positioned directly below the insertion head 44 by a spring 56 stretched between the receiving part 43b and the receiving part 43b. In this state, the article 5 pushed out from the guide 37 has its front surface attached to the stopper 42, its rear surface attached to the subsequent article 5, and both side surfaces attached to the protrusion 37a (FIG. 7) provided at the tip of the guide 37. The lower surface is surrounded by the receiving portion 43b, and the upper surface is surrounded by the insertion head 44.

Further, a cam roller 57 is rotatably supported on the frame 10, and the rod-shaped portion 43
A cam 5 that engages with the cam roller 57 on the top of a
8 is formed. As a result, the elevating member 4
When 6 was descended, at the beginning of the descent,
With the article 5 sandwiched between the insertion head 44 and the support member 43, both are lowered together by a required distance, and when the cam 58 engages the cam roller 57, the elevating member 46 is lowered. The support member 43 is rotated against the spring 56, so that the receiving portion 43b of the support member 43 is inserted into the insertion head 44.
The article 5, which is held by suction on the insertion head 44, is placed in the article storage section 4a.
This makes it possible to accommodate the following.

Therefore, at this time, even if the article 5 that is sucked and held by the insertion head 44 and is lowered is about to be displaced with respect to the insertion head 44 by the subsequent article 5 due to burrs or the like, Since the article 5 is lowered while being held between the insertion head 44 and the receiving portion 43b of the support member 43, its displacement can be prevented or suppressed to a small amount.

Then, the article 5 is inserted between the insertion head 44 and the support member 43.
If the article 5 is held between the receiving portion 43b of the support member 43 and lowered slightly, for example, by about 1 mm, even if the subsequent article 5 comes into contact with the article 5, there will be almost no adverse effects, so the receiving portion of the supporting member 43 43b is immediately retracted from the vertical movement trajectory of the insertion head 44.

Next, the stopper 42 constitutes a part of a defective product discharging device 62 for discharging defective products, and as shown in FIG. It is movably provided and connected to a solenoid 63 (see FIG. 8).

The stopper 42 is provided with a stopper surface 42a that comes into contact with the article 5 to stop it, and a recess 42b adjacent to the stopper surface 42a in which a defective article 5' can be stored. When the power is de-energized, the article 5 is located at the non-operating position shown in the figure and the forward movement of the article 5 is stopped by the stopper surface 42a. When it is detected that the orientation is different from the normal state, or when it is detected that the performance of the item 5 does not have the normal performance in the case of a chip transistor or chip resistor, etc. , the solenoid 63 is energized and the support member 43 is advanced to the operating position, at which time the defective product 5' can be accommodated in the recess 42b.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the receiving portion 43b of the support member 43 is provided with a defective product receiving portion 43c in series in the transport direction of the article 5.
is located at the bottom of the stopper 42, and the recess 42
When a defective product 5' is housed in b, the bottom of the defective product can be supported.

The support member 43 is provided with the stopper 4.
2 is returned to the non-operating position, the recess 42b
A discharge passage 64 is provided which communicates with the inside and discharges the defective products 5' inside to the outside. That is, the supporting member 43 has an inclined surface 43d that guides the defective product 5' to fall downward along the backward direction of the stopper 42 from the operating position to the non-operating position, continuous with the defective product receiving portion 43c. At the same time, a bracket 65 is attached to surround the periphery of the inclined surface 43d to prevent the defective product 5' from flying out from the inclined surface 43d in an unexpected direction.
3d and the bracket 65, the defective product 5' can be reliably dropped into a defective product collection section (not shown) provided below the inclined surface 43d.

The depth of the recess 42b in the article transport direction is set to be slightly shorter than the length of the article in the same direction, and the stopper 42 is returned to its original non-operating position to prevent defective products stored in the recess 42b. When discharging the defective products 5', the protruding part 37a provided at the tip of the guide 37 prevents the subsequent products 5 pushed onto the receiving part 43b from moving laterally together with the defective products 5'. There is.

Further, in FIG. 4, the sealing tape 11 pulled out downward from the second supply reel 12 mentioned above is
The article 5 is wrapped around a roller 66 provided at a position ahead of the support member 43 in the conveyance direction of the article and bent in the horizontal direction, so that the article 5 is placed in each article storage section 4a.
is superimposed on the upper surface of the containing tape 4.

The heater 13 for thermally welding the sealing tape 11 to the storage tape 4 is moved up and down by a solenoid 67 provided on the frame 10 of the article storage device 3, and when the heater 13 is lowered, the sealing tape 11 can be thermally welded to the housing tape 4.

In the above configuration, the article 5 is transferred to the article conveying means 3
When the article 5 is pushed out from the guide 37 of the support member 43 and fed between the receiving part 43b of the support member 43 and the insertion head 44 and stopped by the stopper 42, if the article 5 is good, an electromagnetic The on-off valve is opened to attract and hold the article 5 on the insertion head 44.

Then, the above-mentioned elevating and lowering drive means 45 lowers the support member 43 and the insertion head 44 together by a required distance with the article 5 sandwiched between them, and then lowers the receiving portion 43b of the support member 43. The article 5 which has been withdrawn from the movement trajectory of the insertion head 44 and held by suction on the insertion head 44 is stored in the article accommodating section 4a below.

When the article 5 suctioned and held on the insertion head 44 is stored in the article storage section 4a, the electromagnetic on-off valve is closed to release the article 5 suctioned and held on the insertion head 44, and then the lifting drive means 45 As a result, the support member 43 and the insertion head 44 are raised and returned to their original states.

On the other hand, simultaneously with the lowering of the support member 43 and the insertion head 44, the heater 13 is also lowered by the solenoid 67, and the sealing tape 11 is thermally welded to the article accommodating portion 4a in which the article 5 has already been accommodated, thereby sealing the article. The article storage section 4a is sealed.

When the support member 43 and the insertion head 44 return to their original positions, the tape feeding device 20 described above advances the storage tape 4 by the pitch of the article storage section 4a, and places the new article storage section 4a directly below the insertion head 44. Supply to position. At this time, the above-mentioned accommodation tape 4
Since the pulse motor 21 that performs positioning is disposed close to the insertion head 44, there is a possibility that the pulse motor 21 and the torque motor 24 may be accommodated due to tension caused by the torque motor 24, heat caused by the heater 13, etc. Even if the tape 4 stretches, the article storage section 4a at the position directly below the insertion head 44
It comes to stop at the regular stopping position almost unaffected by this, and therefore the articles can be reliably accommodated. Moreover, the articles 5 are sequentially accommodated in the article accommodating section 4a, and the accommodating tape 4
While the heater 13 is being conveyed intermittently at a certain timing, the heater 13 is continuously located at the lower end position.

Next, the defective product 5' is removed from the receiving part 43b of the support member 43.
When the insertion head 44 is supplied between the support member 43 and the insertion head 44, a control device (not shown) opens the electromagnetic on-off valve and controls the support member 43 and the insertion head 44 by the lifting/lowering driving means 45.
and stopping the conveyance of the storage tape 4 by the tape feeding device 20 after the series of operations,
Also, the solenoid 67 is deenergized to raise the heater 13.

Further, the control device includes a solenoid 63
is energized to advance the stopper 42, and the defective product 5', which has been supplied between the receiving portion 43b of the support member 43 and the insertion head 44 and is stopped by the stopper surface 42a of the stopper 42, is moved to the stopper 42. It is housed in the provided recess 42b. At the same time, the article 5 following the defective article 5' is fed between the receiving portion 43b of the support member 43 and the insertion head 44, and is stopped by the defective article 5'.

Subsequently, when the control device deenergizes the solenoid 63 and returns the stopper 42 to its original non-operating position, the support member 4 is accommodated in the recess 42b.
The defective product 5' supported by the defective product receiving portion 43c of No. 3 moves with the movement of the stopper 42, and moves from the defective product receiving portion 43c to the inclined surface 43d constituting the defective product discharge passage 64. It falls and is finally collected in a defective product collection section (not shown).

In this state, the subsequent article 5 has already been fed between the receiving part 43b of the support member 43 and the insertion head 44 and is stopped by the stopper surface 42a of the stopper 42, and whether the article 5 is a good one or a defective one. Depending on whether the product is a good product or not, one of the above-mentioned normal operation and defective product operation is repeated.

As can be understood from the above-mentioned operation explanation for discharging defective products, since the defective product discharging device 62 is placed beyond the delivery line for normal products 5, normal products 5 are replaced by defective products as in the conventional case. Ejection device 6
There is no room for adverse effects such as getting caught in the article 2, and therefore it is possible to reliably convey the article 5 in a normal manner.

In addition, as other examples of the above-mentioned elevating drive means,
The insertion head is attached to the elevating member so that it can be raised and lowered, and at the start of operation, the insertion head is first lowered to completely sandwich the article between the receiving part of the support member, and when the elevating member lowers the required amount from this state, it is inserted. raising the head relative to its elevating member;
The support member may then be retracted from the locus of movement of the elevating head. Alternatively, the insertion head and support member may be actuated by separate drive sources.

"Effects of the Invention" As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent an article held by the insertion head and lowered from being displaced relative to the insertion head due to burrs, etc. Therefore, it is possible to obtain the effect that the above-mentioned article can be reliably accommodated in the article storage section.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a front view showing one embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a front view showing one embodiment of the present invention;
The figure is a right side view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the accommodation tape 4, FIG. 4 is a front view of the main part of FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is a rear view of the pulse motor 21 shown in FIG. 4. , 6th
The figure is an enlarged sectional view of the main part of FIG. 4, FIG. 7 is a plan view of FIG. 6, FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along the - line of FIG. 4, and FIG. The perspective view shown in FIG. 10 is a view taken in the X direction of FIG. 9. 3... Article storage device, 4... Storage tape, 4a
...article storage section, 5...article, 36...article conveyance means, 37...guide, 42...stopper, 42
a... Stopper surface, 43... Support member, 43a...
... Rod-shaped portion, 43b... Receiving portion, 44... Insertion head, 45... Lifting drive means, 46... Lifting member,
50, 58...cam, 51...cam follower, 5
7...Camrolla.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An article conveying means for conveying articles along a guide in contact with each other; and an article conveying means disposed at a predetermined interval in front of the guide to abut against the article pushed out from the tip of the guide to move the article forward. a stopper to be stopped; a support member that can be raised and lowered to support the bottom of the article pushed out from the guide tip between the guide tip and the stopper; and a storage tape intermittently conveyed and supplied below the support member; and a storage tape feeding device that stops an article storage section provided on the storage tape at a position directly below the support member, and an elevating device that holds the article supplied and supported on the support member and stores it in the article storage section. a freely movable insertion head; the insertion head and a support member;
and an elevating and lowering drive means for lowering the support member together by a required distance with the article held between them, and retracting the support member from the movement trajectory of the insertion head when the support member has been lowered by the required distance. An article storage device characterized by: