Parts Feeding Device with Relay Buffer for Continuous Tray Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional parts feeding devices experience inefficiencies in feeding parts from trays, particularly when different types of parts need to be continuously fed, as they require repeated insertion and removal of trays, leading to standby times and reduced mounting efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A parts feeding device with a magazine, a parts feeding table, and a relay device that allows for vertical movement between the magazine and the table, enabling efficient retrieval and positioning of pallets with trays, allowing continuous feeding without constant tray exchange.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the conventional parts feeding device retrieves and returns trays repeatedly from the magazine, then parts can be fed to the mounting device, but the head experiences standby time and mounting efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces a parts feeding table where trays are prepared in advance before being transferred to the mounting head. The table holds multiple trays in a ready state, allowing the head to continuously retrieve parts without waiting for magazine operations. This preliminary preparation of trays eliminates the standby time that occurs when the head must wait for tray retrieval and return cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The parts feeding table acts as an intermediary buffer between the magazine and the mounting head. Instead of the head directly interacting with the magazine for every tray retrieval, the table serves as a intermediate storage that decouples the head's part retrieval operations from the magazine's tray management operations, allowing continuous operation without synchronization delays.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the same parts are housed in one tray and different parts are to be continuously fed, then tray insertion and removal operations are repeated, but this deteriorates mounting efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The parts feeding table is divided into multiple independent tray positions, allowing different types of trays to be loaded simultaneously at different locations. This segmentation enables the system to handle multiple part varieties without requiring sequential tray exchanges, as the head can move between different tray positions on the table to retrieve different part types continuously.
Solution Approach 2:
The parts feeding table is designed with movable trays that can be dynamically repositioned and reconfigured based on the mounting sequence requirements. When different part types need to be fed continuously, the trays can be rearranged on the table to optimize the head's movement path, maintaining high mounting efficiency while handling part variety.
Data Source
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Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
A parts feeding device includes a magazine for housing pallets, a parts feeding table capable of supporting a plurality of pallets in a state where a tray mounted on a topmost pallet is positioned within a movable range of a parts retrieving head and in a state where an upside of the tray is open, and a relay device which inserts and removes the pallets into and from the magazine and the parts feeding table.