METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EVALUATING A COMPONENT PICK ACTION IN AN ELECTRONICS ASSEMBLY MACHINE

• US 20090135251A1
• Filed: 02/02/2009
• Published: 05/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CyberOptics Corporation (Nordson Corporation)
• Original Assignee: CyberOptics Corporation (Nordson Corporation)
• Inventors: Manickam, Swaminathan, Case, Steven K., Duquette, David W., Rudd, Eric P., Konicek, John P.
• Application Number:
  US12/363,990
• Publication Number:
  US 20090135251A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/87
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 13/0812 the monitoring devices being integrated in the mounting machine, e.g. for monitoring components, leads, component placement
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/53178 Chip component
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/53191 Means to apply vacuum directly to position or hold work part

Abstract

An electronics assembly apparatus with improved pick evaluation is provided. The apparatus includes a placement head having at least one nozzle for releasably picking up and holding a component. A robotic system is provided for generating relative movement between the placement head and a workpiece, such as a circuit board. An image acquisition system is disposed to obtain at least one before-pick image of a component pick up location and at least one after-pick image of the component pick up location. The before-pick image contains a plurality of image portions, having each image portion view the pick-up location from a different point of view, while the after-pick image contains a plurality of image portions, having each image portion view the pick-up location from a different point of view.

Claims

1. A method of evaluating a component pick action in an electronics assembly machine, the method comprising:

obtaining a before-pick image of a nozzle, wherein the before-pick image includes a plurality of image portions with each image portion corresponding to a different point of view of the nozzle;

obtaining an after-pick image of the nozzle, wherein the after-pick image includes a plurality of image portions with each image portion corresponding to a different point of view of the nozzle; and

wherein each image portion in the after-pick image has a point of view that matches a point of view of an image portion of the before-pick image; and

wherein analysis of the image portions provides a pick indication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the machine is configured to provide a pick indication selected from the group consisting of:

partial tombstone, full tombstone, partial billboard, full billboard, corner, and absent.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of image portions includes at least three image portions and at least one image portion has a magnification that is different than other image portions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of image portions of the after-pick image views the nozzle from a different point of view, and at least two points of view are separated by about ninety degrees.