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#149 Production Technology Improvement Course for Mechanical Designers - 19: Component Alignment Technology: Direction Change

Category : Automation elements technology
February22, 2013

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.

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