Printed circuit board assembling system

A system for assembling a printed circuit board, comprising:

• (a) a substrate supplying station supplying a plurality of substrates received from outside the system, wherein each of said plurality of substrates has a unique substrate identifier;
• (b) a parts supplying station supplying a plurality of parts received from outside the system, wherein the plurality of parts are to be mounted in the plurality of substrates, and including:
• (i) a means for forming a separate set of parts for each of the plurality of substrates, based on predetermined information regarding what parts are to be mounted on each of the plurality of substrates;
• and
• (ii) a plurality of parts containers each for storing one of said separate sets of parts corresponding to said plurality of substrates, wherein said forming means places each set of the plurality of parts in a separate parts container of the plurality of parts containers, in accordance with a substrate of the plurality of substrates on which the set of parts is to be mounted;
• (c) a parts mounting station receiving the plurality of sets of parts from said parts supplying station, receiving the plurality of substrates from said substrate supplying station and mounting one of said separate sets of parts on a corresponding substrate.

A system for assembling a printed circuit board comprising:

• (a) a substrate supplying station in which one or more substrates are to be handled;
• (b) a parts supplying station in which parts to be mounted on the substrate are to be handled;
• (c) a parts mounting station in which the parts supplied from said parts supplying station are to be mounted on the substrates supplied from said substrate supplying station;
• (d) one or more automatic machines disposed in each of said stations;
• (e) parts-set forming means, as one of said automatic machines disposed at an inlet port of said parts supplying station for providing one or more sets of parts, each set of parts corresponding to one of the substrates supplied in said substrate supplying station, and placing parts selected for a set of parts, which are introduced in said parts supplying station, on one of a previously prepared plurality of parts containers so as to correspond to the substrate on which the selected parts of said set of parts are to be mounted;
• (f) recognizing means, disposed at an inlet side and/or an outlet side of each of said automatic machines, for recognizing the substrates and the sets of parts by identifiers each peculiar to the substrates and the sets of parts;
• (g) each of said recognizing means at said parts supplying station being capable of recognizing the parts in terms of sets formed by said parts set forming means by detecting identifiers each peculiar to a respective one of said parts containers;
• (h) identifier giving means, as one of said automatic machines, disposed at an inlet port of said substrate supplying station for giving identifiers to each of the substrates introduced in said substrate supplying station;
• and
• (i) station controlling means for controlling each of said stations based on data obtained by a respective one of said recognizing means.