Mounting system including a plurality of hand mechanisms for picking up, moving and mounting works on an object board

A method of picking up different types of works and of inserting the picked up works on an object board placed on a reference plane, which comprises the steps of:

• sliding a work to be picked up along a surface inclined by an angle 2.alpha. with respect to the reference plane and feeding the slid work to a pickup position;
• driving a head mechanism mounted on a rotary member rotated about an axis of rotation inclined by an angle .alpha. with respect to a vertical axis perpendicular to the reference plane, so that the work is gripped and picked up from the pickup position along the vertical axis with respect to the inclined surface;
• rotating the rotary member to move the head mechanism which grips the work to an insertion position which is positioned opposite to the pickup position with regard to the rotating axis of the rotary member;
• and
• causing the head mechanism to insert the work gripped therewith on the object board along the vertical axis perpendicular to the reference plane.

A control device for a turret type mounter having a turret table with a plurality of work holding mechanisms and having a fixed feed position for holding an externally fed work and a fixed release position for releasing a held work so as to mount the held work, which comprises:

• a memory for storing a process program table which describes a work mounting order and a holding status table representing whether each of said holding mechanisms holds a work or not;
• determining means for accessing said process program table and said holding status table to determine whether a process for feeding a work by one holding mechanism supposed to reach the feed position is present in said process program table, and to determine whether another holding mechanism reaching the release position simultaneously with arrival of said one holding mechanism at the feed position holds a work;
• and
• command means for instructing, when at least one of two determination results is affirmative, to rotate and stop said turret table to allow a work holding operation and a work release operation of an affirmatively determined one of said one holding mechanism and said another holding mechanism, to respectively reach the feed and release positions.

A mounting system for mounting a work at an arbitrary position on an object board, said mounting system comprising:

• a positioning device for holding an object board on which a work is to be mounted, and positioning the object board in X, Y, and rotational directions;
• a finger head mechanism having a plurality of finger heads which are located vertically above said positioning device while holding works to be mounted on the object board, and which are vertically moved to mount the works on the object board;
• a clinch head mechanism having a plurality of head mechanisms, located below said positioning device, for upwardly clinching a work mounted by said finger head on said object board;
• and
• administration means for (i) administrating mounting positions of the works on the object board, (ii) specifying a finger head and a clinch head to be used for holding and clinching a work, respectively, and a mounting position of the work on the board, (iii) relative-position-controlling the positioning device, the finger head mechanism and clinch head mechanism so that the specified finger and clinch heads are over the mounting position, and (iv) causing the finger head mechanism and clinch head mechanism to cooperate for insertion and clinch operations.

A mounting system for mounting a work at an arbitrary position on an object board, said mounting system comprising:

• a work feed mechanism which stores a plurality of works, said work feed mechanism being arranged to separate a target work from other works upon dropping of one work from a standby position by weight of said one work and to locate a separated work to a gripping position where a finger head can grip the separated work;
• a positioning device for holding an object board on which a plurality of works are mounted, and for positioning the object board in X, Y, and rotational directions;
• and
• a finger head rotation mechanism, having a turret table rotatably mounted with a plurality of finger heads, for rotating an arbitrary finger head to the gripping position or rotating said arbitrary finger head to a release position at which the work is released from said arbitrary finger, each of said finger heads being mounted on said turret table so that an operating direction of said finger head is perpendicular to said positioning table at the release position and the operating direction is inclined at a gripping position by an angle 2.alpha. from a vertical direction, said turret table having an axis of rotation inclined by an angle .alpha. from the vertical direction.

A mounting system for picking up one work from a pickup position where works having different types are selectively fed, and for moving a picked up work to an insertion position where the work is mounted on an object board, which comprises:

• a rotary member arranged to be rotatable;
• a plurality of head means, mounted on said rotary member, for picking up and inserting the works;
• a single first driving means, connected to each of said head means which reaches the insertion position, for moving each of said head means in an insertion direction;
• and
• first detecting means for detecting a connection enable/disable state of said head means connectable to said first driving means before one of said head means which picked up a work is connected to said first driving means.

A method of changing a head mechanism in a mounting apparatus having said head mechanism for performing a pickup operation of a work and an insertion operation of the work on an object board, which comprises the steps of:

• mounting a cam member on a gripper member for pickup up the work;
• holding a slidable member to be slidable on a head body, said slidable member being mounted with a cam follower engaged with said cam member to open/close said gripper member;
• and
• engaging said cam member of said gripper member with said cam follower at a predetermined position when said gripper member is changed.

A mounting method of sequentially picking up a work at a pickup position and inserting the work onto an object board at an insertion position using a mounting apparatus having a rotary member arranged to be rotatable and a plurality of head units which are capable of picking up and holding the works, said method comprising the steps of:

• storing a pickup order in which designated works are sequentially picked-up at the pickup position and an insertion order in which designated held works are sequentially inserted onto the object board at the insertion position;
• determining whether or not the head unit, which is the closest and is approaching the pickup or insertion position, is designated by the pickup or insertion order to pickup or insert the work, on the basis of the stored content;
• and
• controlling operation to stop the rotary member at the pickup or insertion position, only if the head means, which is determined to be designated by the pickup or insertion order to pickup or insert the work, is approaching the pickup or insertion position.