Component mounter and mounting method

• US 6,356,352 B1
• Filed: 08/01/2000
• Issued: 03/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nakahara, Kazuhiko, Sumi, Hideki, Noda, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Hoa Q.
• Application Number:
  US09/631,039
• Time in Patent Office: 588 Days
• Field of Search: 356/614, 356/622, 348/94, 348/95, 348/126, 298/32, 297/40, 297/21, 297/41, 297/00, 298/34
• US Class Current: 356/614
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 13/04 Mounting of components , e.g. of leadless components
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/53 Means to assemble or disassemble
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/53091 for work-holder for assembly or disassembly
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/53178 Chip component

Abstract

A component mounter which includes a component feeder carriage; mounting head having two or more suction nozzles for picking up a component from the feeder carriage; image capturing means for taking an image of each component held by the suction nozzles; and a recognizer for recognizing each component based on image data obtained by the image capturing means according to a mounting sequence of each component. Each component is immediately and individually mounted on a mounting target after recognition. This configuration allows to eliminate wasteful standby time, thus offering efficient component mounting.

Claims

1. A component mounter comprising:

(a) a component feeder carriage;

(b) a mounting head having a plurality of suction nozzles for picking up a plurality of components from said feeder carriage;

(c) image capturing means for taking an image of each component held by said suction nozzles after said plurality of suction nozzles have picked up said plurality of components; and

(d) a recognizer for sequentially recognizing each component using image data obtained by said image capturing means according to a mounting sequence of each component;

wherein a recognized component is individually mounted on a mounting target in turn.

2. The component mounter as defined in claim 1, wherein said image capturing means is a line camera, and said mounting head moves to said line camera for obtaining the image data.

3. The component mounter as defined in claim 1, wherein a positional deviation of said recognized component is corrected, and then individually mounted on a mounting target in turn.

4. The component mounter as defined in claim 1, wherein a position of a next component is recognized while mounting said recognized component.

5. The component mounter as defined in claim 1, wherein suction error detection is implemented for detecting the presence of a component on each of said suction nozzles before recognizing each of said components.

6. The component mounter as defined in claim 5, wherein said suction error detection is implemented using an image taken by said image capturing means.

7. The component mounter as defined in claim 5, wherein positional recognition and mounting are abandoned for a particular suction nozzle in which a suction error is found in said suction error detection.

8. A component mounting method comprising:

(a) picking up a plurality of components from a component feeder carriage by a mounting head having a plurality of suction nozzles;

(b) taking an image of each component held by said suction nozzles, by image capturing means, after said plurality of suction nozzles have picked up said plurality of components;

(c) sequentially recognizing each component by a recognizer using said image taken according to a mounting sequence of each component; and

(d) mounting the recognized component individually on a mounting target in turn.

9. The component mounting method as defined in claim 8, wherein a line camera is used as said image capturing means in said step of taking an image of each component, and image data is obtained by moving said mounting head to said line camera.

10. The component mounting method as defined in claim 8 further comprising next steps after said step of recognizing each component:

calculating compensation for correcting positional deviation of said each component; and

correcting positional deviation according to said compensation for correcting positional deviation while moving said mounting head.

11. The component mounting method as defined in claim 8, wherein a position of a next component is recognized during mounting of said recognized component.

12. The component mounting method as defined in claim 8 further comprising a next step before said step of recognizing each component:

detecting a suction error for checking the presence of the component on each of said suction nozzles.

13. The component mounting method as defined in claim 12, wherein said step of suction error detection is implemented using the image taken by said image capturing means.

14. The component mounting method as defined in claim 12, wherein position recognition and mounting are abandoned for a particular suction nozzle in which a suction error is found in said step of detecting a suction error.