Component mounting apparatus and component detection method

A component detection method for detecting whether or not a component exists on a lower end of a pickup nozzle of a mounting head in a component mounting apparatus that picks up a component from component feeding unit by the mounting head, transferring and mounting the component on a substrate, wherein

• the apparatus comprises
• a substrate conveyance mechanism that conveys the substrate in a first direction, positioning and retaining the substrate at a component mounting operation position and a head transfer mechanism that transfers the mounting heads in the first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction by a first transfer mechanism and a second transfer mechanism, thereby moving the mounting head between the substrate conveyance mechanism and the component feeding unit disposed beside the substrate conveyance mechanism in the second direction thereof,
• an imaging unit that includes a light projection unit for projecting a belt-like inspection beam and a line sensor camera which receives the inspection beam and which outputs the beam as image data representing a state of the lower end of the pickup nozzle attached to the mounting head and that are configured such that the light projection unit and the line sensor camera are placed opposite to each other with a transfer pathway of the mounting head interposed therebetween and outside a transfer stroke of the mounting head in the first direction thereof, and
• a focusing processing unit that controls an optical system whose focusing point is variably set on the line sensor camera, thereby adjusting the focusing point of the line sensor camera to a desired position during imaging operation;
• and wherein
• the method includes
• a transfer pathway calculation step of deriving, in each of component-mounting rounds, from mounting program data targeted for the substrate the transfer pathways of the mounting head in a component-mounting round during which the mounting head are moved back and forth between the component feeding unit and the substrate conveyance mechanism,
• an imaging control step of controlling the focusing processing unit on the basis of data pertaining to the derived transfer pathways, thereby matching the focusing point of the line sensor camera to the transfer pathway of the mounting head in each of the component-mounting rounds, and
• a determination processing step of determining from the image data output from the line sensor camera whether or not a component exists on the lower end of the pickup nozzle.