Pick and place method and apparatus

Abstract

A turret assembly is movable in X and Y and a turret of the assembly is rotatable to position a selected one of a plurality of spindles at a transfer station of the turret. The selected spindle is telescopic to pick a component from a supply point and to place the component at a placement point on a circuit board or the like. An assembly for squaring, centering, orienting, and/or testing a component being held by another spindle of the turret is actuated generally concurrently with extending of the selected spindle. Alternatively, the spindle at the transfer station may be retained in the retracted position during actuation of the squaring assembly. Much time is saved by loading components on the plurality of the spindles of the turret at one or more supply stations and then placing all of these components without the need for transferring back and forth between the supply and P.C. board.

Now that the invention has been described, I claim: 
     
       1. In an apparatus for selectively performing the operations of picking components from one point and placing them at another point by means of a turret assembly having a rotatable turret with plural component holding spindles protruding therefrom and angularly spaced about a hub thereof, said picking and placing operations being performed by transferring components respectively to and from said spindles at a component transfer station of said turret assembly wherein said component transfer station is situated at a particular circumferential angular location about the hub of said turret, the improvement comprising: displacer means for extending and retracting at least one of said spindles relative to said hub in order to perform said transferring;   said displacer means comprising a pin protruding laterally from said at least one spindle and into an annular groove of a guide ring generally centered on said hub, such that said pin rides in said groove during rotation of said turret to retain said spindle in a retracted condition;   said displacer means further comprising a section of said guide ring which is displaceable generally radially of said hub relative to the remainder of said guiding, said section comprising an arcuate portion of said annular groove; means for moving said section, so that when pin extends into the annular groove of said section, radial displacement of said section results in radial displacement of said spindle into an extended condition.   
     
     
       2. The improvement as in claim 1 and further comprising: means for relocating said turret assembly and presenting said component transfer station of said turret at a selected one of said points for transferring said component in a direction generally normal to a plane containing said point.   
     
     
       3. The improvement as in claim 1, and further comprising: means for rotating turret prior to relocating said turret assembly.   
     
     
       4. The improvement as in claim 1, and further comprising: means for rotating turret during relocating said turret assembly.   
     
     
       5. The improvement as in claim 1, and further comprising: means for rotating said turret after relocating said turret assembly.   
     
     
       6. The improvement as in claim 1, and further comprising: means for retracting said spindle partially during said picking and placing according to pressures experienced by said component during said operations.   
     
     
       7. The improvement as in claim 6, and further comprising: means for limiting said partial retracting in order to limit said pressure experienced by said component.   
     
     
       8. The improvement as in claim 7, and further comprising: means for adjusting said limiting.   
     
     
       9. The improvement as in claim 1, and further comprising: a squaring assembly and means for actuating said squaring assembly and thus squaring another component being held by another spindle which is not at said component transfer station.   
     
     
       10. The improvement as in claim 9, and further comprising: means for actuating said squaring assembly generally simultaneously with said spindle extending and retracting.   
     
     
       11. The improvement as in claim 9, and further comprising: means for preventing said spindle extending and retracting during actuating of said squaring assembly.   
     
     
       12. The improvement as in claim 9, and further comprising: means for centering said other component upon actuating said squaring assembly.   
     
     
       13. The improvement as in claim 9, and further comprising: means for testing electrical functioning of said other component upon actuating said squaring assembly.   
     
     
       14. The improvement as in claim 9, and further comprising: means for orienting said other component upon actuating said squaring assembly. .Iadd.   
     
     
       15.  An apparatus for equipping printed circuit boards with electronic components, said apparatus comprising: at least two supply stations;   a rotatable turret having a plurality of pick-up spindles for components, each said spindle having a vacuum nozzle suitable for picking components from any of said supply stations;   at least one processing station contiguous with said rotatable turret; and   means for displacing and positioning said turret together with said at least one processing station in X and Y directions, said means including programmable controller means for controlling the movement of said turret in said X and Y directions and permitting a plurality of components to be picked up from different supply stations by the plurality of vacuum nozzles so that the components picked up by said spindles from said supply stations can be passed by said processing station during indexing and translation of said turret and so that any of said plurality of components loaded on said plurality of spindles from any of said supply stations then may be placed on the circuit board at any programmable position. .Iaddend. .Iadd.   
     
     
       16.  An apparatus as in claim 15, wherein said processing station is a squaring and centering assembly. .Iaddend. .Iadd.17. An apparatus as in claim 15, wherein said processing station is a component tester. .Iaddend.