US 6,295,728 B1Granted

Printed circuit board assembly manufacturing system

AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

InventorsEon-Min Shin, Kyu-Dong Lee, Tae-Ha Kim, Doo-Won Kang, Bum-Suck Kim, Yang-Koog Kim, Seong-Deok Lee

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A system for manufacturing a print board assembly, which is implemented in a system having a computer for storing parts insertion instruction diagrams and displaying parts insertion instructions, and a soldering unit for soldering a printed circuit board, includes: assembling different types of the printed circuit boards from pieces of parts and inspecting them in a multitude of cells; installing different types of the printed circuit boards in carriers to assemble them separately according to the parts insertion instructions displayed by the computer of each cell, and moving them to the soldering unit through a transfer conveyor line; and returning the carriers having the printed circuit boards completely soldered to each cell identified for the carriers through a return conveyor line.

Claims39

Dependent claims

A system for manufacturing a print board assembly, which has a spray flux for flux-coating a printed circuit board installed in a carrier, and a soldering unit for soldering the printed circuit board coated with flux, comprising:

a multitude of work frames having a multitude of work frame upper conveyors for placing each of the carriers thereon by a number of workers, installing different types of the printed circuit boards in the carriers and inserting parts into the printed circuit boards according to parts insertion instructions, the carriers with the printed circuit boards soldered being returned to the work frame upper conveyors by types of the printed circuit board;
an upper conveyor for transferring the carriers from the work frames to the soldering unit, with a multitude of transfer switch turned on;
a carrier transfer distance controller for adjusting a transfer distance of the carriers on the upper conveyor so as to prevent the carriers from colliding with each other;
a multitude of up/down and rotation units for moving the carriers up to the height of the spray flux and rotating them in a 90-degree arc;
a slope conveyor for moving one side of the carriers down so as to have a declination during soldering;
an elevator for moving the carriers down when the carriers are transferred from the slope conveyor and enter the elevator;
a rotation unit for rotating the carriers reversely in a 90-degree arc so as to change their orientations;
a lower conveyor for transferring the carriers rotated reversely by the rotation units to return, the carriers being moved down to the lower conveyor by the elevator when they are transferred from the slope conveyor;
a multitude of lifters for moving the carriers returned by the lower conveyors up to the work frame upper conveyors;
a multitude of carrier type sensing units installed in each designated position of the lower conveyor to detect positions of cell-recognizing indicators of the carriers;
a controller for controlling the carriers to return to each work frame designated in response to a determining signal received from a carrier type discrimination unit to determine a transfer status of the carriers, generating a dig control signal for the work frame upper and lower conveyors and a carrier control signal to move up or down the carriers, and generating a motor control signal to drive base boards for supplying the parts in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction;
and
a multitude of sensors installed on the upper and lower conveyors to sense the transfer status of the carriers.

10 more elements

A system for assembling a plurality of printed circuit boards, said system comprising:

a printed circuit board being individually assembled by an arranger, then transported through a soldering process, and then transported back to said arranger that originally assembled said printed circuit board to check the quality and the accuracy of assembly;
a plurality of circuitry controlling said system and allowing said system to produce different types of said printed circuit boards concurrently;
a main assembly line comprising:
a first conveyor vertically aligned with and parallel to a second conveyor, said first conveyor and said second conveyor transporting a carrier securely supporting said printed circuit board;
said first conveyor having means for receiving an assembled said printed circuit board from any one of a plurality of parallel assembly lines
an automatic flux unit operating on said printed circuit board after said first conveyor receives said carrier and while said first conveyor transports said carrier to a first elevator device;
an automatic soldering unit operating on said printed circuit board during the transport of said carrier from said automatic flux unit to said first elevator device;
said first elevator device receiving said carrier from said first conveyor and transporting said carrier to said second conveyor, said second conveyor transporting said printed circuit board to a parallel assembly line that provided said printed circuit board;
and
means for transferring said carrier from said second conveyor to said parallel assembly line that said carrier was received from;
said parallel line stations each connected at a distal end to said main assembly line, each of said parallel line stations, comprising:
a third conveyor vertically aligned and parallel to a fourth conveyor, said third conveyor supporting said carrier during the assembly of said printed circuit board and then providing said carrier supporting said printed circuit board to said first conveyor of said main assembly line;
a display device controlled by said circuitry and showing instructions for assembling said printed circuit board of a predetermined type;
said fourth conveyor receiving said carrier from said second conveyor of said main assembly line after the completion of said soldering process and transporting said carrier to a second elevator device;
said second elevator device transporting said carrier to said third conveyor;
and
said third conveyor transporting said carrier supporting a soldered said printed circuit board to said arranger that assembled said printed circuit board;
and
a plurality of sensors transmitting a plurality of data to said circuitry to allow said circuitry to control said system and to ensure that a soldered said printed circuit board is checked by said arranger that assembled said printed circuit board.

16 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/327,159Filed 3 Jun 1999 · division
Priority: KR 96/5779525 Nov 1996
Granted: 2 Oct 2001
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

H05K 13/0061
Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing or adjusting assemblages of electric components: tools for holding the circuit boards…
H05K 13/04
Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing or adjusting assemblages of electric components: mounting of components , e.g. of…
H05K 13/085
Monitoring manufacture of assemblages: production planning, e.g. of allocation of products to machines, of mounting sequences at machine or…
Y10T 29/4913
On flat or curved insulated base, e.g., printed circuit, etc.: assembling to base an electrical component, e.g., capacitor, etc.

Family

Application08/978,469Parent of this division · filed 25 Nov 1997
US 6,145,190 AParent of this division
US 6,295,728 B1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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