February 2013 Archives

Surface mount components such as capacitors and insertion parts for assembly need to be top/bottom and for/aft orientation aligned. The orientation alignment will be based on the unique characteristics of the subject components (shape differences, identification markings, and etc.).

Explanation on For/Aft orientation alignment

(1) When there are differences in front end and rear end shapes

The directional alignment is often performed utilizing the for/aft shape differences of the parts.

a) Movement of a part not requiring directional changes

b) Movement of a part requiring directional changes

(2) Parts feeding and aligning

-	Small parts such as shown in the above example are randomly put in a funnel shaped vessel called "Hopper".
-	This Hopper is vibrated finely to perform parts orientation change operation on the "Alignment feeder".
-	There are following three vibratory methods for the Hopper. The vibratory hopper is also called Parts Feeder.
-	A vibrator unit is mounted below the hopper to make up the parts feeder.
-	The round hopper is sometimes called a Bowl.

Difficulty level of the component alignment technology rises as the component sizes are on the miniaturization trend. The following aligning processes are needed in order to align components, and the automation measures to orientation rotate chip components of around 0.5mm is a highly advanced technology that is an accumulation of Low Cost Automation technology over a long period of time.

■Miniaturization・Shape changes

LCA (Low Cost Automation) for aligning small parts such as capacitors require the following performance characters.

■ Performance required for capacitor alignment LCA technology

Capacitors as the representative chip style electronic component example, component alignment technology is explained. For smaller, lighter, and thinner electronic equipment, capacitors have been changing in miniaturization and minimization of the product configurations.

[Table 1] Changes in projection area and volume of capacitor products.

- As can be seen from [Fig.2], miniaturization of capacitors contributes to size and weight reduction of 1/62 projection area, 1/500 volume, and 1/300 weight. - However, difficulty levels in the automation technology to detect capacitor component orientation and position manipulation will rise. - For the capacitor component alignment tasks, parts feeders are often used to perform the process. 　a) Side reversals 　b) Fore/aft alignment 　c) Workpiece separation (rejection of misaligned parts, etc.)