Automatic tinning equipment for connectors

Abstract

The present application discloses an automatic tinning device for connectors, comprising: a six-axis robot mounted on a robot mounting base; a soldering module connected to the arm end of the six-axis robot through a connecting shaft, comprising a wire feeder and a soldering pen mounted on a connecting block, the connecting block being located on the connecting shaft; wherein a soldering tip is provided at the end of the soldering pen, the soldering pen also comprising an angle adjustment part and a force adjustment part, for adjusting the inclination angle of the soldering tip and the deformation of the soldering tip in the stress direction after being subjected to stress, a wire feeding tube connected to the wire feeder is provided on one side of the soldering tip; a heating module, comprising a heating element arranged at the end of the six-axis robot, and a hot air nozzle arranged on the other side of the soldering tip and connected to the heating element; a correction and cleaning module, comprising a cleaning mechanism, a collection box and a soldering tip correction sensor. The present application uses a six-axis manipulator equipped with a soldering module, a heating module and a correction and cleaning module, so that the equipment can be compatible with a variety of product requirements, and improves welding accuracy and welding stability.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of automation equipment, and in particular to an automatic tinning equipment for connectors. Background Art

[0002] During the welding process, the gold-plated layer of the connector pin reacts with the molten tin to form a tin-gold alloy. This alloy is prone to gold brittleness under special circumstances, affecting the stability of the device circuit. In order to avoid the problem of tin-gold alloy, a tinning and de-crystallization process is added before the connector is welded to the cable, and the gold content of the tin-gold alloy is reduced through this process.

[0003] The connector has a special structure. During the processing of the connector pins, there must be no excess solder on the outside of the solder cup. The dense and multi-row pin structure is very difficult to solve by one-time tinning, and it must be ensured that the molten tin cannot enter the pin connection. It can only be solved by welding each point.

[0004] The existing tin-plating process is almost entirely manual, which requires high operating skills from personnel. There are many types of connectors, a large number of pins, and a high pin density, which increases the workload of front-line operators. The volatility of manual operation will affect the quality of batch tin-plating.

[0005] As the frequency of product upgrades increases, product output and cycle requirements are increasing. The compatibility and compactness of automated production lines need to be upgraded in a timely manner to meet the diverse needs of customers, improve production line efficiency and modular requirements of mechanism design. Summary of the invention

[0006] The object of the present invention is to provide an automatic tinning device for connectors, so as to meet the requirements of automatic tinning of various connector pins, reduce the complexity of manual operation and improve production efficiency.

[0007] To achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

[0008] A connector automatic tinning equipment, comprising:

[0009] A robot mounting base, on which a six-axis robot is arranged;

[0010] A soldering module is connected to the end of the arm of the six-axis robot through a connecting shaft, and the soldering module includes a wire feeder and a soldering pen installed on a connecting block, and the connecting block is located on the connecting shaft; wherein, a soldering tip is provided at the end of the soldering pen, and the soldering pen also includes an angle adjustment part and a force adjustment part, one end of the angle adjustment part is connected to the force adjustment part, the angle adjustment part is used to adjust the inclination angle of the soldering tip, and the force adjustment part is used to move within a deformation range in the stress direction according to the magnitude of the stress on the soldering tip, and a wire feeding tube connected to the wire feeder is provided on one side of the soldering tip;

[0011] A heating module, comprising a heating element arranged at the end of the six-axis robot, and a hot air nozzle arranged at the other side of the welding nozzle and connected to the heating element, wherein the heating element comprises a bellows sleeve, a hot air gun, a three-way quick-plug connector and a three-way solenoid valve, wherein the bellows sleeve contains compressed air, and the hot air gun is provided with a heating wire, wherein one end of the hot air gun is connected to the bellows sleeve, and the other end thereof is divided into two air paths to the three-way solenoid valve through the three-way quick-plug connector, and the three-way solenoid valve is connected to the hot air nozzle through an air guide pipe, and the heating element blows the heat of the heating wire to the hot air nozzle through the air flow in the bellows sleeve; and

[0012] The correction and cleaning module is located below the solder module, and includes a cleaning mechanism, a collection box and a welding tip correction sensor. The cleaning mechanism includes a copper wire ball and a motor that drives the copper wire ball to rotate. The collection box is used to collect waste tin wire oxides. A cleaning nozzle is provided at the box mouth of the collection box. One end of the cleaning nozzle is connected to the air supply device through an air duct to spray compressed air to clean the welding tip located at the box mouth. The welding tip correction sensor is used to correct the tolerance caused by the height of the welding tip after replacing it.

[0013] Preferably, the wire feeding tube is a metal hose and can be bent.

[0014] Preferably, the end of the wire feeding tube is connected to the tin wire guide nozzle through a wire feeding tube joint, and the tin wire guide nozzle is aligned with the welding nozzle.

[0015] Preferably, the angle adjustment part includes: a fixed seat, a sliding block, an arc-shaped positioning plate, a screw and a sliding block nut. The fixed seat is fixedly connected to the connecting block through a clamp. The fixed seat is provided with an arc track that can be slidably connected to the arc-shaped positioning plate. The arc-shaped positioning plate is provided with an arc-shaped groove. After the screw passes through the fixed seat, the arc-shaped groove and the sliding block in sequence, it is relatively fixed by the sliding block nut. The arc-shaped positioning plate is slidably connected to the sliding block.

[0016] More preferably, the arc-shaped positioning plate is provided with a scale.

[0017] More preferably, the force adjustment part includes: a back plate, one end of the back plate is fixedly connected to one end of the arc-shaped positioning plate, a linear guide rail is provided on the back plate, a linear slider is slidably connected to the linear guide rail, and the linear slider is fixedly connected to the solder pen.

[0018] Preferably, the solder pen is also provided with an adjustment knob for adjusting the pressing force of the soldering tip.

[0019] Preferably, a nitrogen blowing nozzle is further provided on one side of the welding nozzle, and the nitrogen blowing nozzle is used to guide compressed nitrogen to the welding nozzle.

[0020] Preferably, the solder module also includes: a tin wire coil hanger, which is fixedly connected to the connecting block, and a wire winding reel is provided on the tin wire coil hanger. The tin wire fed by the wire feeder is guided by the tin wire coil hanger and then guided to the welding nozzle position through a wire feeding tube.

[0021] Preferably, the solder module also includes: a visual positioning component, which is arranged on one side of the solder pen, including a visual camera arranged along the Z-axis direction, and a light source arranged below the visual camera, and the light source and the visual camera guide the secondary positioning of the product through the control of the host computer.

[0022] More preferably, the light source is an LED light source.

[0023] More preferably, the visual camera is a CCD camera.

[0024] Preferably, the hot air nozzle of the heating module is made of brass.

[0025] Preferably, a thermocouple is installed on the hot air nozzle of the heating module, and the thermocouple is used to detect the temperature of the hot air flowing through the hot air nozzle.

[0026] Preferably, the welding tip correction sensor is installed on a sensor support, and the cleaning mechanism, collection box and sensor support are placed side by side in sequence on a rectangular stage. The rectangular stage also includes a base, and the base includes four supporting columns supporting the four corners of the rectangular stage, and a bottom plate located under the supporting columns.

[0027] Compared with the prior art, the technical solution of the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0028] 1) It can meet the needs of various types of connector products. It is equipped with a heating module. Preheating the connector products before welding can effectively improve the stability of welding.

[0029] 2) Welding accuracy is improved, and the use of visual cameras to guide positioning can reduce changes in welding position caused by the tolerance of the carrier and the matching tolerance between the carrier and the product.

[0030] 3) The welding stability is improved. The welding tip correction module is integrated with a cleaning device, which can effectively remove oxides and excess molten tin to ensure the welding quality. At the same time, the welding tip correction sensor can automatically adjust the coordinate system changes caused by automatic replacement of the welding tip.

[0031] 4) Visual inspection of solder joints can check the soldering quality of solder joints and determine whether they are qualified.

[0032] 5) The welding adjustment range is larger. Equipped with a six-axis robot and an angle adjuster, the solder pen can be adjusted to a larger angle. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] The drawings that constitute part of this application are used to provide a further understanding of this application. The illustrative embodiments of this application and their descriptions are used to explain this application and do not constitute an improper limitation on this application. In the drawings:

[0034] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an automatic tinning equipment for connectors;

[0035] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the solder module;

[0036] Figure 3 yes Figure 2 Left view of

[0037] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the solder pen in the solder module;

[0038] Figure 5 yes Figure 4 Left view of

[0039] Figure 6 yes Figure 4 Rear view of

[0040] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the heating element in the heating module;

[0041] Figure 8 It is a structural schematic diagram of the calibration cleaning module.

[0042] Legend:

[0043] 1. Robot installation base;

[0044] 2. Six-axis robot;

[0045] 3. Soldering module; 31. Wire feeder; 32. Tin wire roll hanger; 33. Solder pen; 330. Fixed seat; 331. Hoop; 332. Angle adjuster; 333. Sliding block; 334. Back plate; 335. Adjustment knob; 336. Linear slider; 337. Linear guide; 338. Nitrogen blowing nozzle; 339. Wire feeding tube; 35. Hot air nozzle; 36. Connecting shaft; 37. Connecting block; 39. Light source; 40. Visual camera;

[0046] 4. Heating module; 41. Mounting plate; 43. Bellows sleeve; 44. Hot air gun; 45. Three-way quick-connect connector; 46. Three-way solenoid valve;

[0047] 5. Calibration and cleaning module; 51. Base plate; 52. Support column; 53. Cleaning mechanism; 54. Collection box; 55. Cleaning nozzle; 56. Sensor holder; 57. Welding nozzle calibration sensor. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0048] In order to make the purpose, technical solution and effect of the present invention clearer and more specific, the present invention is further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present invention and are not used to limit the present invention.

[0049] It should be noted that the terms "first", "second", etc. in the specification and claims of the present invention and the above-mentioned drawings are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data used in this way can be interchanged under appropriate circumstances. In addition, the terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product or device that includes a series of steps or units is not necessarily limited to those steps or units clearly listed, but may include other steps or units that are not clearly listed or inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

[0050] Example:

[0051] The present application discloses a novel automatic connector tinning equipment, which can meet the needs of automatic tinning of various connector pins.

[0052] Figure 1 The figure is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an automatic tinning equipment for connectors. Figure 1 As shown, an automatic tinning equipment for connectors mainly includes: a robot mounting base 1, a six-axis robot 2, a soldering module 3, a heating module 4 and a correction and cleaning module 5. Among them, the six-axis robot 2 is mounted on the robot mounting base 1; the soldering module 3 is connected to the end of the arm of the six-axis robot 2 through a connecting shaft 36; the heating module 4 is assembled on the end of the six-axis robot 2 through a mounting plate 41, and connected to other products.

[0053] Figure 2 , Figure 3 It is a structural diagram of the solder module.

[0054] See also Figure 2 , Figure 3 As shown, the solder module 3 is connected to the end of the arm of the six-axis robot 2 through a connecting shaft 36, and a connecting block 37 is provided on the connecting shaft 36, and the solder module 3 is installed on the connecting block 37. The solder module 3 includes a wire feeder 31, a tin wire roll hanger 32 and a solder pen 33. Among them, a soldering tip is provided at the end of the solder pen 33, and the solder pen 33 also includes an angle adjustment part and a force adjustment part. One end of the angle adjustment part is connected to the force adjustment part. The angle adjustment part is used to adjust the inclination angle of the soldering tip, and the force adjustment part is used to move within the deformation range of the stress direction according to the magnitude of the stress on the soldering tip. A wire feeding tube 339 connected to the wire feeder 31 is provided on one side of the soldering tip.

[0055] Specifically, the wire feeding tube 339 is a metal hose that can be bent. The end of the wire feeding tube 339 is connected to the tin wire guide nozzle through a wire feeding tube joint, and the tin wire guide nozzle is aligned with the welding nozzle. The tin wire winding rack 32 is provided with a wire winding disk, and the tin wire fed by the wire feeder 31 is guided by the tin wire winding rack 32 and then guided to the position of the welding nozzle through the wire feeding tube 339.

[0056] The solder module 3 also includes a visual positioning component, which is arranged on one side of the solder pen 33, including a visual camera 40 arranged along the Z-axis direction, and a light source 39 arranged below the visual camera 40, and the light source 39 is located at the front end of the lens of the visual camera 40 to provide brightness. The light source 39 and the visual camera 40 guide the secondary positioning of the product through the control of the host computer. Among them, the light source 39 can be an LED light source, and the visual camera 40 can be a CCD camera.

[0057] Figures 4 to 6 It is a structural schematic diagram of the solder pen 33 of the solder module 3.

[0058] When actually soldering, the solder pen 33 needs to be tilted at a certain angle according to the position of the connector. The tilt angles are different when processing different parts. Therefore, when the angle of the solder pen 33 needs to be adjusted, the present application uses the angle adjustment part to make fine adjustments to meet the needs of different connectors. In addition, the solder pen 33 may damage the welding part during welding. When the stress applied by the solder pen 33 to the processing part of the connector is too large, the force adjustment part will deform and shrink.

[0059] Specifically, see Figure 4As shown, the angle adjustment part includes: a fixed seat 330, a sliding block 333, an angle adjuster 332 (i.e., an arc-shaped positioning plate), a screw and a sliding block nut. The fixed seat 330 is fixedly connected to the connecting block 37 through a hoop 331, and the fixed seat 330 is provided with an arc track that can be slidably connected to the angle adjuster 332. The angle adjuster 332 is provided with an arc groove, and the angle adjuster 332 is also provided with a scale. After the screw passes through the fixed seat 330, the arc groove, and the sliding block 333 in sequence, it is relatively fixed by the sliding block nut. The angle adjuster 332 is slidably connected to the sliding block 333, and the arc groove of the angle adjuster 332 enables the sliding block 333 to move around its arc to adjust the angle of the welding tip. In cooperation with the rotation of the manipulator, the angle adjustment part can achieve various directional angle tilts, adapt to a variety of welding postures, improve the scope of application of the six-axis robot 2, and make the solder pen 33 more flexible in the actual welding process.

[0060] See also Figure 6 As shown, the force adjustment part includes: a back plate 334, one end of the back plate 334 is fixedly connected to one end of the angle adjuster 332, a linear guide 337 is provided on the back plate 334, a linear slider 336 is slidably connected to the linear guide 337, and the linear slider 336 is fixedly connected to the solder pen 33. The linear guide 337 provides a guiding and limiting function for the linear slider 336. The linear slider 336 is connected to the solder pen 33. When the soldering tip of the solder pen 33 hits the surface of the processing part of the connector, it will drive the linear slider 336 to move up along the linear guide 337. This upward displacement of the solder pen 33 provides a buffer space for the soldering tip. The linear slider 336 and the linear guide 337 are slidably matched, so that the soldering tip can be adaptively adjusted when subjected to a large contact force, so that the welded workpiece will not be subjected to excessive stress, and the welded workpiece is prevented from being damaged and scrapped.

[0061] In a preferred embodiment, the solder pen 33 is further provided with an adjustment knob 335 for adjusting the pressing force of the soldering tip.

[0062] In a preferred embodiment, a nitrogen blowing nozzle 338 is further provided on one side of the welding nozzle, and the nitrogen blowing nozzle 338 guides compressed nitrogen to the welding nozzle to maintain a welding atmosphere.

[0063] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the heating element in the heating module 4.

[0064] See also Figure 7 As shown, the heating module 4 includes a heating element disposed at the end of the six-axis robot 2, and a hot air nozzle 35 disposed at the other side of the welding nozzle and connected to the heating element (see Figure 2The hot air nozzle 35 of the heating module 4 is made of brass material, and a thermocouple is installed on the hot air nozzle 35. The hot air is guided to a position close to the welding tip through the hot air nozzle 35, and the thermocouple can measure the temperature at the position.

[0065] Specifically, the heating element includes a bellows sleeve 43, a hot air gun 44, a three-way quick-plug connector 45 and a three-way solenoid valve 46. The bellows sleeve 43 contains circuit cables and compressed air. The hot air gun 44 is installed with a heating wire. One end of the hot air gun 44 is connected to the bellows sleeve 43, and the other end is divided into two air paths through the three-way quick-plug connector 45 to the three-way solenoid valve 46 to achieve the control of hot air. The three-way solenoid valve 46 is connected to the hot air nozzle 35 through an air guide pipe. When the right three-way solenoid valve 46 is activated, the hot air is guided to the hot air nozzle 35 through the three-way solenoid valve 46 to achieve the preheating function of the welding equipment.

[0066] Figure 8 It is a structural schematic diagram of the calibration cleaning module.

[0067] See also Figure 8 As shown, the correction and cleaning module 5 is located below the solder module 3 , and includes a cleaning mechanism 53 , a collection box 54 and a soldering tip correction sensor 57 .

[0068] The cleaning mechanism 53 includes a copper wire ball and a motor. The cleaning mechanism 53 is connected to the motor through the internal copper wire ball, so that the motor drives the copper wire ball to rotate. The rotating copper wire ball can remove oxides or excess molten tin from the welding tip, keep the welding tip clean, and ensure the quality of welding.

[0069] The collection box 54 is used to collect waste tin oxides. A cleaning nozzle 55 is provided at the box opening of the collection box 54. One end of the cleaning nozzle 55 is connected to the air supply device through an air guide pipe, and is used to spray compressed air to clean the welding nozzle at the box opening. For example, after the equipment welds 50 times, the six-axis robot 2 is controlled by a program to move so that the welding nozzle is cleaned by the compressed air sprayed from the cleaning nozzle 55 at this location.

[0070] The welding tip correction sensor 57 is installed on the sensor support 56. The welding tip correction sensor 57 corrects the tolerance caused by the height of the welding tip after the welding tip is replaced, and automatically adjusts the coordinate system of the welding tip through an algorithm.

[0071] The cleaning mechanism 53 , collection box 54 and sensor support 56 are placed side by side in sequence on a rectangular stage. The rectangular stage also includes a base. The base includes four support columns 52 supporting the four corners of the rectangular stage and a bottom plate 51 located below the support columns 52 .

[0072] This application uses a six-axis manipulator equipped with a soldering module 3, a heating module 4 and a correction and cleaning module 5, so that the equipment can be compatible with a variety of product requirements. The visual positioning component accurately locates the pins of the connector, guides the hot air nozzle 35 to heat the connector to a suitable temperature, and automatically turns the hot air on and off through heating time timing and thermocouple temperature feedback. The visual camera 40 guides the soldering nozzle to automatically tin the position of the connector pin solder cup to achieve the requirements of precise tinning. The cleaning and soldering nozzle calibration functions of the correction and cleaning module 5 can automatically clean the soldering nozzle and ensure the position accuracy of the soldering nozzle.

[0073] To sum up, the automatic tinning equipment for connectors disclosed in the present application can meet the product requirements of various types of connectors, effectively improve the stability and accuracy of welding, effectively reduce the amount of manual operation, and meet the requirements of efficient and high-quality tinning.

[0074] The specific embodiments of the present invention are described in detail above, but they are only examples, and the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above. For those skilled in the art, any equivalent modifications and substitutions made to the present invention are also within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the equalization changes and modifications made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A connector automatic tinning equipment, characterized in that: include: A robot mounting base, on which a six-axis robot is arranged; A soldering module is connected to the end of the arm of the six-axis robot through a connecting shaft, and the soldering module includes a wire feeder and a soldering pen installed on a connecting block, and the connecting block is located on the connecting shaft; wherein, a soldering tip is provided at the end of the soldering pen, and the soldering pen also includes an angle adjustment part and a force adjustment part, one end of the angle adjustment part is connected to the force adjustment part, the angle adjustment part is used to adjust the inclination angle of the soldering tip, and the force adjustment part is used to move within a deformation range in the stress direction according to the magnitude of the stress on the soldering tip, and a wire feeding tube connected to the wire feeder is provided on one side of the soldering tip; A heating module, comprising a heating element arranged at the end of the six-axis robot, and a hot air nozzle arranged at the other side of the welding nozzle and connected to the heating element, wherein the heating element comprises a bellows sleeve, a hot air gun, a three-way quick-plug connector and a three-way solenoid valve, wherein the bellows sleeve contains compressed air, and the hot air gun is provided with a heating wire, wherein one end of the hot air gun is connected to the bellows sleeve, and the other end thereof is divided into two air paths to the three-way solenoid valve through the three-way quick-plug connector, and the three-way solenoid valve is connected to the hot air nozzle through an air guide pipe, and the heating element blows the heat of the heating wire to the hot air nozzle through the air flow in the bellows sleeve; and A correction cleaning module is located below the solder module, and includes a cleaning mechanism, a collection box, and a welding tip correction sensor. The cleaning mechanism includes a copper wire ball and a motor driving the copper wire ball to rotate. The collection box is used to collect waste tin wire oxides. A cleaning nozzle is provided at the box opening of the collection box. One end of the cleaning nozzle is connected to the air supply device through an air guide pipe, and is used to spray compressed air to clean the welding tip at the box opening. The welding tip correction sensor is used to correct the tolerance caused by the height of the welding tip after the replacement of the welding tip. Wherein, the angle adjustment part comprises: a fixed seat, a sliding block, an arc-shaped positioning plate, a screw and a sliding block nut, the fixed seat is fixedly connected to the connecting block through a hoop, the fixed seat is provided with an arc track that can be slidably connected to the arc-shaped positioning plate, the arc-shaped positioning plate is provided with an arc-shaped groove, the screw passes through the fixed seat, the arc-shaped groove and the sliding block in sequence, and is relatively fixed by the sliding block nut, and the arc-shaped positioning plate is slidably connected to the sliding block; Among them, the solder module also includes: a tin wire coil hanger and a visual positioning component; the tin wire coil hanger is fixedly connected to the connecting block, and the tin wire coil hanger is provided with a wire winding disk, and the tin wire sent out by the wire feeder is guided by the tin wire coil hanger and then guided to the welding nozzle position through the wire feeding tube; the visual positioning component is arranged on one side of the solder pen, including a visual camera arranged along the Z-axis direction, and a light source arranged below the visual camera, and the light source and the visual camera guide the secondary positioning of the product through the control of the upper computer.

2. The automatic connector tinning equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that: The force adjustment part includes: a back plate, one end of the back plate is fixedly connected to one end of the arc-shaped positioning plate, a linear guide rail is provided on the back plate, a linear slider is slidably connected to the linear guide rail, and the linear slider is fixedly connected to the solder pen.

3. The automatic connector tinning equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that: The solder pen is also provided with an adjusting knob for adjusting the pressing force of the soldering tip.

4. The automatic connector tinning equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that: A nitrogen blowing nozzle is also provided on one side of the welding nozzle, and the nitrogen blowing nozzle is used to guide compressed nitrogen to the welding nozzle.

5. The automatic connector tinning equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that: A thermocouple is installed on the hot air nozzle of the heating module, and the thermocouple is used to detect the temperature of the hot air flowing through the hot air nozzle.

6. The automatic connector tinning equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that: The hot air nozzle of the heating module is made of brass.

7. The automatic connector tinning equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that: The welding tip correction sensor is installed on the sensor support, and the cleaning mechanism, collection box and sensor support are placed side by side on a rectangular stage. The rectangular stage also includes a base, which includes four supporting columns supporting the four corners of the rectangular stage and a bottom plate located under the supporting columns.

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