Feeder for electronic chip components
First Claim
1. An electronic chip component feeder for feeding a plurality of kinds of electronic chip components, said electronic chip component feeder comprising:
- a plurality of feeding units, each said feeding unit including a hopper for accommodating and discharging a plurality of electronic chip components, and a guide path for aligning and leading the electronic chip components discharged from said hopper to a predetermined dispensing location;
a mechanism for moving said feeding units in unison so that their respective dispensing locations are successively transferred to a fixed position;
a picking-up mechanism for picking-up electronic chip components placed at said fixed position;
a counting unit for generating a measure representative of the amount of potential degradation suffered by said electronic components while in the hoppers of their respective feeding units.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic chip component feeder is provided to prevent continued supply of electronic chip components for mounting which have surface discolorization, deteriorated electrode solderability, or cracks or chips produced by chip collisions. The electronic chip component feeder includes plural feeding units arranged in an array. Each feeding unit has a hopper for holding a plurality of components of a particular kind, and a guide path by which components are transferred from the hopper to a dispensing location. At the dispensing location, the components are picked up by a sucking chuck and then transferred to a substrate for mounting thereon. The plurality of feeding units are capable of being reciprocated in unison so that the dispensing location for the feeding units are successively moved to a fixed position. The electronic chip component feeder further includes a counting unit for counting the number of movements of the each feeding unit. This provides a measure of the degree of potential degradation of the electronic chip components in the hoppers caused by movement of their respective feeding unit. An alarm can be generated when the counted number reaches a predefined number, set individually for each feeding unit.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. An electronic chip component feeder for feeding a plurality of kinds of electronic chip components, said electronic chip component feeder comprising:
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a plurality of feeding units, each said feeding unit including a hopper for accommodating and discharging a plurality of electronic chip components, and a guide path for aligning and leading the electronic chip components discharged from said hopper to a predetermined dispensing location;
a mechanism for moving said feeding units in unison so that their respective dispensing locations are successively transferred to a fixed position;
a picking-up mechanism for picking-up electronic chip components placed at said fixed position;
a counting unit for generating a measure representative of the amount of potential degradation suffered by said electronic components while in the hoppers of their respective feeding units. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for feeding electronic components using an electronic chip component feeder having a plurality of feeding units, each feeding unit having a hopper and a dispensing location, comprising the steps of:
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repeatedly moving each feeding unit such that its dispensing location is made coincident with a fixed position;
repeatedly transferring electronic components from the dispensing locations of respective feeding units to a mounting surface when said dispensing locations are made coincident with said fixed position;
generating a count, for each feeding unit, which reflects the potential degradation of electronic units accommodated within the hoppers of each respective feeding unit; and
stopping the transfer of electronic components to said mounting surface from any feeding unit in which a count exceeds a predetermined number. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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19. A feeding unit for use in an electronic chip component feeder for feeding electronic chip components, said feeding unit comprising:
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a hopper for accommodating and discharging a plurality of electronic chip components;
a guide path for aligning and leading the electronic chip components discharged from said hopper to a predetermined dispensing location;
a count mechanism for generating a count representative of the amount of potential degradation suffered by said electronic components while in the hopper; and
an indication mechanism for indicating when said count exceeds a predetermined value, indicating that said electronic components in said hopper need to be replaced. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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23. An electronic chip component feeder for feeding a plurality of kinds of electronic chip components, said electronic chip component feeder comprising:
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a plurality of feeding units, each said feeding unit including a hopper for accommodating and discharging a plurality of electronic chip components which are randomly arranged m the hopper, and a guide path for aligning and leading the electronic chip components discharged from said hopper to a predetermined dispensing location;
a mechanism for reciprocating said feeding units in unison so that their respective dispensing locations are successively transferred to a fixed position;
a picking-up mechanism for picking-up electronic chip components placed at said fixed position; and
a counting unit for generating a measure representative of the amount of potential degradation suffered by said electronic components while in the hoppers of their respective feeding units. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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Specification