US3868488A

US3868488A - Device for connecting minute distributing circuit elements and minute connecting wire elements

Info

Publication number: US3868488A
Application number: US319713A
Authority: US
Inventors: Toshihiko Kobayashi; Tetsusaburo Kamibayashi; Satoshi Ichioka; Yukinori Matsushima; Norio Mitsumoto; Hirohisa Ono; Kazuo Onishi
Original assignee: Mishima Kosan Co Ltd
Current assignee: Mishima Kosan Co Ltd
Priority date: 1971-12-31
Filing date: 1972-12-29
Publication date: 1975-02-25
Anticipated expiration: 1992-02-25
Also published as: GB1411599A; JPS4873785A; DE2263231A1; CA977832A

Abstract

A device for connecting minute electric circuit elements with wire elements is disclosed. The connections are made by soldering, heat being supplied by an infrared lamp. A preinspecting system having an inspection head is provided. This system provides electrodes spaced to correspond to the spacing between circuit elements, which are utilized to evaluate the integrity of the electric circuit elements. A connection inspection system, using a bridge circuit is also provided. Open terminals of the bridge circuit are connected with a scanning device to determine the resistance of each element.

Description

United States Patent [191 Kobayashi et al.

[ Feb. 25, 1975 DEVICE FOR CONNECTING MINUTE DISTRIBUTING CIRCUIT ELEMENTS AND MINUTE CONNECTING WIRE ELEMENTS Inventors: Toshihiko Kobayashi, Tokyo;

Tetsusaburo Kamibayashi, Shinza; Satoshi Ichioka, Toda; Yukinori Matsushima, Tokyo; Norio Mitsumoto, Toda; Hirohisa Ono; Kazuo Onishi, both of Tokyo, all of Japan Assignee: Mishima Kiesan Co., Ltd., Fukouka Prefecture, Japan Filed: Dec. 29, 1972 Appl. No.: 319,713

Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 3l, l97l Japan 47-825 US. Cl. 219/85, 219/109 Int. Cl. B23k 1/02 Field of Search 219/85, 109

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,289,046 ll/l966 Carr 219/85 X 3,604,108 9/l97l Mallery.... 219/85 X Primary Examiner-J. V. Truhe Assistant Examiner-N. D. Herkamp Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack [57] ABSTRACT A device for connecting minute electric circuit elements with wire elements is disclosed. The connections are made by soldering, heat being supplied by an infrared lamp. A pre-inspecting system having an inspection head is provided. This system provides electrodes spaced to correspond to the spacing between circuit elements, which are utilized to evaluate the integrity of the electric circuit elements. A connection inspection system, using a bridge circuit is also provided. Open terminals of the bridge circuit are connected with a scanning device to determine the resistance of each element.

1 Claim, 12 Drawing Figures -o AC SOURCE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for connecting minute distributing circuit elements with minute connecting wire elements, and more particularly to a heat radiation connecting device having inspection means to inspect the elements after the connection has been completed.

2. Prior Art The remarkable progress in the field of electronics in recent years has brought-about improvements, such as miniaturization and high compactness, in electrical circuits which are used as basic component elements of various types of electronic devices and apparatus. This is greatly due to the development of so-called printed circuitry.

However, the soldering generally used for connecting miniaturized electric circuits to the associated circuitry in an outside appliance such as a machine, tool, etc., is almost entirely performed by skilled manual labor. A strong demand is therefore voiced for novel devices or new techniques that improve efficiency and can also solve the problem of non-uniformity of connections which inevitably accompanies manual soldering to realize perfect uniformity of product quality.

Great difficulty is also oftenexperienced in industrially confirming the condition of electric insulation between the individual circuits and in case some failure or breakdown should take place in the insulation be tween circuits while the circuits are being conveyed after initial confirmation of conduct integrity it has been practially impossible to reconfirm the insulation status before proceeding to the connecting operations. Hence quite a number of substandard or inoperative articles are produced. This has been a great obstruction to the effective utilization of the new technology and also is extremely uneconomical since a single defective connection would oblige abondonment of many other normal circuits.

It has been also impossible to confirm the condition of circuit connections immediately after the connections are made, and hence a defective connection is often found after circuit incorporation has been completed. This has been another deleterious factor relat ing to working efficiency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been developed with the object of eliminating the above-noted defects and difficulties that have attended the conventional circuit connecting process. To this end, the subject invention provides a novel device for allowing perfect connections of minute distributing circuit elements, which device is capable of confirming the existance of insulation between the circuits to be connected, so that the insulation-confirmed circuit can be connected to another circuit, and is also capable of confirming whether the connection between the circuits is proper after such connection has been completed.

It is also an-object of the present invention to provide a device which permits confirmation of the integrity of the insulation between the conductors in a miniaturized 2 and highly compact distributing circuit quickly, accurately and with ease, immediately prior to the connecting operation.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a connecting device which is able to markedly improve the working efficiency when connecting a distributing circuit to another circuit.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an insulation confirming device which is capable of confirming the integrity of connection between the circuits after the connection operation quickly, accurately and with ease.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A more complete understanding of the present invention may be had by reading the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram embodying the device according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view showing an embodiment of the device according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side view thereof but showing only an essential part thereof;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a detection head;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmental sectional view taken along the line V-V of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a plane view showing the aligned positional relationship between a base plate and a connecting terminal assembly;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmental sectional view taken along the line VI-VI of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a side view showing a heating lamp moving mechanism in a connecting device;

FIG. 9 is a end view of the slider with an infrared lamps shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a plane view showing a situation where the connecting elements of a terminal board are connected to the corresponding contact terminals of a connecting board;

FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along the line XI-XI of FIG. 10; and

FIG. 12 is a plane view showing a fixed condition of the base plate after connection has been completed.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a connecting device, generally designated by numeral 1, according to the present invention. The device is comprised of an insulation confirmation section 3, where the condition of the insulation of the parts to be connected is confirmed. a connection section 4, where the parts are electrically connected, an inspection section 5, where the condition of the connection formed by said connection section 4 is ascertained and an illumination section 7 including an illumination lamp 6 for facilitating the positioning of the parts when performing connection thereof, said illumination lamp being controlled by operating a switch 6A.

The insulation confirmation section 3 includes a current shut-off circuit 12 made up of an electromagnetic relay and other associated elements, and a plug socket assembly 15 in which an attachment plug 14 of detection head 13 (which is described later) is insertable. The current shut-off circuit 12 and plug socket assembly 15 are connected in series to the output side of a rectifier 11 which is supplied at its input side with an AC voltage through a voltage regulator from an AC power source. There is also provided an indicator lamp 16 connected in parallel to said plug socket assembly 15, and current may be applied either to said socket assembly or to said indicator lamp 16 through said current shut-off circuit 12.

Circuit elements to be connected are shown diagrammatically in FIGS. 6 and 7. Circuit elements 18 are distributed along the upper side of a base plate 17 as well known in the art. Such base plate may be a memory plate on which elements 18 are arranged. Each of the elements 18 may be 50;). wide and spaced apart 50a. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 a detection head 13 provides a plurality of parallel electrodes 19 arranged on a base plate 3a. The width and space of the electrodes 19 correspond to the width of each element 18 and the distance between each adjoining elements so that each of said electrodes will fit with a corresponding one of the elements 18 on the base plate 17. It is to be also noted that the lead wires (not shown) of the alternate electrodes 19 are connected to one plug 14A of the attachment plug assembly 14 and the lead wires of the remaining electrodes are connected to the other plug 14B.

Thus, for joining the electrodes 19 of the detection head 13 to the corresponding terminals of the respective elements 18 of the base plate 17, said detection head 13 and base plate 17 are pressed together by a pressing means 20 provided in the connecting device 1. This pressing means 20 is designed to allow vertical movement of a flat horizontal pressing plate 21 with rotation of a rotary member 22 (shown in FIG. 2). First,

the detection head 13 and base plate 17 are positioned.

relative to each other so that the electrodes 19 in said head are positioned opposite the corresponding termin'als of the respective elements 18 on the base plate 17 (this positioning is usually conducted by using a microscope), and then this assembly is placed'on a support block 1A (shown in FIG. 8) and then a handle 22a of said rotary member 22 is turned to lower the pressing plate 21, whereby the assembly can be securely held between said support block 1A and pressing plate 21. Discussion is now directed to the connection section 4. It will be seen that a fusing heat radiating means 26,- for example an infrared lamp, and an ammeter 27 adapted to measure the applied current are connected to the DC output of the rectifier 11 through a switch 25. An indicator lamp 29 is connected in parallel to said fusing heat radiating means 26. i

Numeral 30 refers to a transformer, having its primary side connected to an AC power source through a switch 31 and the secondary side connected to the input side of a rectifier 32. The DC output of said rectifier 32 is adjusted by an adjusting knob 33 and is connected to a transfer motor 35 through a switch 34. The condition of said motor 35 is indicated by a lamp 36. The infrared lamp 26 is movable in the direction of arrows in FIG. 8. As seen in FIG. 8, a horizontal guide bar 37 extends out from a frame plate 1B and is slidably passed through a hole 28a in a slider 28 which supports said infrared lamp 26. Below and parallel to said guide bar 37 is provided a lead screw 38 which is threadedly engaged along a length thereof with a threaded hole 28b in said slider 28. Thus, when said lead screw 38 is rotated by operating said motor 35, the infrared lamp 26 is accordingly moved in the direction of the arrows, that is, along the length of said lead screw 38, either forwardly or backwardly according to the direction of rotation of said lead screw.

Referring now to the inspection section 5, numeral 40 denotes an inspector contactor made of an electroconductive material. The fore end portion 40a is formed smaller than the width of each connecting element 39a on a connecting terminal board 39 so that it will not overlap and simultaneously contact the adjoining elements 34. This contactor 40 is driven by a motor 41 to move in the direction of arrows in FIG. 2, said motor 41 being connected to the DC output side of the rectifier 32 through a speed regulator 43. The contactor 40 is also electrically connected to one of the open terminals 52 of a variable resistance 48 in a bridge circuit 45. The other open terminal of said variable resistance member 48 in said bridge circuit 45 is connected to one of the open terminals of another resistance member 46, the other open terminal thereof being in turn connected to one of the open terminals of still another resistance member 47. Further, a terminal 50', which extends out from the other open terminal 50 of said resistance member 47, is electrically connected to a metal bar which can span one end of each or a plurality of circuit elements by urging the bar by pressing plate 21. One example of the bar 80 is shown in FIG. 12.

Connected between the

terminals

51 and 52 of said bridge circuit 45 is a connection confirmation circuit 82 which includes an ammeter 55 adapted to measure the electric current flowing through said circuit, and

indicator lamps

56 and 57 connected in parallel thereto. The electric circuits of these

indicator lamps

56 and 57 are made and broken according to the value of electric current measured by said ammeter 55, and the operation thereof is controlled by a control unit 55' and a switch 83.

To state it another way, the system is arranged such that when the electric current flowing between said

terminals

51 and 52 of the bridge circuit 45 is greater than a predetermined setting current, switch 83 is connected to the terminal 57a of the indicator lamp 57 to complete a circuit including lamp 57, while when the current flowing between said

terminals

51 and 52 is smaller than the setting current, said switch 83 is now connected to the terminal 56a of the indicator lamp 56 so as to activate lamp 56. If the flowing current is equal to the setting current (or when the device is not used), said switch 83 is not connected to either of the

terminals

56a and 57a but is connected to the terminal 82a of the circuit 82. The indicator lamp 56 will also go on if a faulty connection is produced. That is, when soldering the ends of the elements on the base plate to the corresponding ends of the connecting elements in the connecting terminal board by applying heat rays from the infrared lamp 26, if said ends of the two groups of elements to be connected are not perfectly joined together but produce a faulty connection, said lamp 56 goes on to indicate such abnormality. 0n the other hand, indicator lamp 57 will go on if, during such connecting works, fused solder flows out to form a bridge between adjoining elements.

Between the AC source and said voltage regulator 10 and transformer 30 are provided

timers

60, 61, a relay 62 and a switch 63, whereby an AC current is supplied intermittently to said voltage regulator 10 and transformer 30.

Numerals

65 and 66 denote switches, of which the switch 66 is operated responsive to said switch 25.

Switches

31 and 34 are ganged and operate simultaneously. The operation of the device of the present invention, will now be discussed.

First, the condition of of insulation of the

base plates

17, 17, the connecting terminal board 39 to which the

respective elements

18, 18 of said both base plates 17, 17' are to be connected, and the connecting terminals of the terminal board 70 which is for connecting the elements 18 of said base plate 17 to an outside machine, apparatus or such, is confirmed in the insulation confirmation section 3'.

The confirmation in this insulation confirmation section 3 is performed in the following manner. The

elements

18, 18 of both base plates 17, 17', or the connecting elements of the

terminal boards

39, 70, are fixed to the corresponding electrodes 19 of the detection head 13 as described above, and then the attachment plug 14 is inserted in the plug socket 15. If any bridges exist between the elements l8, 18 of the

base plates

17, 17 and/or between the connecting elements of the connecting

terminal boards

39, 70, causing faulty insulation, current flows through the current shut-off circuit 12, whereby the relay 12A is engerized which lights the indicator lamp 16. Thus, the integrity of the insulation of the respective elements can be confirmed by reference to the lamp 16.

After the above-said confirmation, the ends of the elements 18 of the base plate 17 are connected to the corresponding elements 39a of the connecting terminal board 39 in the connection section 4. The connecting terminal board 39 is composed of a flexible synthetic resin sheet on which a plurality of small connecting elements 390, made of an electroconductive material, are disposed in an appropriate arrangement. Needless to say, the dimensions and pitch of these elements 39a are selected to conform to those of the elements 18 on the base plate 17. Also, although not shown, solder is attached to the ends of these connecting elements 39a.

In operation, the connecting terminal board 39 is laid on the base plate 17 such that the ends of the connecting terminals 39a of the terminal board 39 are located right" on the ends of the corresponding elements 18 of the base plate 17 as shown in FIG. 7. Correct positioning of the

respective elements

18 and 39a is performed by using a microscope.

The base plate 17 and connecting terminal board 39, thus correctly located relative to each other, are retained in such position by using the aforementioned pressing means 20 in the following manner. The attached base plate 17 and connecting terminal board 39, with their

elements

18 and 39a properly aligned and in contact, are placed between the infrared lamp 26 and bed plate 1A along the direction of movement of said lamp 26, and then handle 22a is turned to lower the pressing plate 21 so as to securely hold the superimposed portions of said base plate 17 and terminal board 39 between said bed plate IA and pressing plate 21. The pressing plate 21 is made of a heat permeable material such as for example quartz glass. Thereafter, motor 35 is driven to rotate the lead screw 38 to accordingly move the infrared lamp 26 along the length of said screw, and heat rays are generated from said moving infrared lamp 26 and directed toward the attached ends of the

elements

18 and 39a of the base plate 17 and terminal board 39 to melt the solder at the element ends and thereby join the elements 18 with the corresponding connecting elements 39a. The joining of the other ends of the connecting elements 39a of said terminal board 39 with the corresponding ends of the elements 18 of base plate 17 can be performed in the same way. The same operation can be also employed for effecting the connection of the respective elements 70a of the connecting terminal board 70 which is used for connecting the other ends of the elements 18 of the base plate 17 to an outside machine, tool or such.

Like the connecting terminal board 39, said terminal board 70 is composed of a synthetic resin sheet with a plurality of connecting elements 70a disposed on its upper surface in suitable arrangement. It is to be noted that the ends of the connecting elements 700, on the side where they are to be connected to an outside machine are provided with a greater pitch than that given to their ends which have previously been connected to the respective elements 18 of the base plate 17, so as to facilitate the connecting operation (see FIG. 10). The length of time for which the infrared lamp 26 is lit, and the time during which the lamp travels along screw 38 are controlled by timers and 61, respectively.

In this way, the connection of respective elements of the base plates l7, 17', with the connecting terminal board 39 and the connection of elements of the base plate 17 with the connecting terminal board (used for connecting said elements to an outside machine) are effected in a preferred form.

For inspecting the condition of these connections in the inspection section 5, one of the open terminals 50 of the bridge circuit 45 is connected to a plate 72 to which said base plates l7, 17' are fixed (see FIG. 12), and then the contactor 40, to which the other open terminal 52 of said bridge circuit 45 is connected, is also electrically connected to the open ends of the contacting elements 70a of the connecting terminal board 70 in a successive manner. The balancing of the bridge circuit 45 is set by using a standard sample in which appropriate connection has been made beforehand. This setting is performed by adjusting the variable resistance member 48. At this time, the amount of electric current flowing between the

terminals

51 and 52 is memorized as the setting 'current by the control unit 55'.

Thus, when the contactor 40 is electrically connected successively to the open ends of the respective connecting elements 700, if each connection has been properly completed, the balance of the bridge circuit 45 is maintained, but if any faulty connection is present, a current higher or lower than the setting current is detected by the meter 55 in the confirmation circuit 82 and the switch 83 is operated by the control means 55 in accordance with this detected current value so as to light the indicator lamp 57 in the case a bridge has been formed and to light the indicator lamp 56 in the case an inperfect connection has been produced.

It is to be noted that when successively contacting the contactor 40 and the ends of the respective elements 70a of the connecting terminal board 70, if said contactor 40 is directly contacted with said respective element ends, said elements 70a may be damaged. It is therefore advisable to use an intermediate connecting plate 77 such as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11. This connecting plate 77 is made of an insulating material such as synthetic resin, and contact terminals 79 are arranged along a stepped portion 78 in conformity to the width and pitch of the elements 70a of the terminal board 70. The connecting terminal board 70 is placed on this connecting plate 77 and the ends of the respective connecting elements 70a are connected to the corresponding contact terminals 79. Thus, the above-said inspection is carried out by successively contacting the contactor 40 with the respective contact terminals 79 of the connecting plate 77, whereby it is possible to avoid any damage to the connecting elements 70a of the connecting terminal board 70.

As described above, the connecting device according to the present invention has an insulation confirmation mechanism whereby the condition of insulation of the parts to be connected can be confirmed before connecting the base plate to the parts to be connected such as connecting terminal board, so that it is possible to prevent any failure or trouble caused by faulty insulation that may take place after the connection has been made. The present device also has a connecting section where quick and secure connection can be achieved semi-automatically, thereby realizing remarkable improvement of workability and productivity as com-- pared with the conventional manual practices. Further, the parts connected in the connecting section are immediately subjected to inspection in the inspection section to ensure perfect exclusion of the defective or nonconforming articles.

What is claimed is:

l. A device for connecting minute distributing circuit elements with minute connecting wire elements, commeans by said lead wires, said detection head having a plurality of electrodes arranged in parallel and spaced to correspond to the spacing between circuit elements, said plurality of electrodes being alternatively coupled to said lead wires, said signal means adapted to be actuated when a short circuit between lead wires is detected;

a connecting means for connecting the elements after testing by said insulation confirmation means and comprised of a heat radiation source for heating solder used to connect the elements, a vertically movable pressing plate for pressing the wire elements to the circuit elements, said pressing plate being positioned adjacent said heat radiation source and being heat transparent, and means coupled to said heat source for moving said heat source along the elements being connected for proper heating; and an inspection means for inspection after said elements have been connected by said connecting means and comprised of a bridge circuit having two open terminals, a contact member connected with one open terminal of said bridge circuit and adapted to electrically contact all of said circuit elements via said pressing plate, a scanning member coupled to the other of said open terminals and adapted to sequentially scan the other ends of said circuit elements through said wire elements, and indication means coupled to said bridge circuit for indicating faultily connected wire elements, in response to the value of resistance between said terminals.

Claims

1. A device for connecting minute distributing circuit elements with minute connecting wire elements, comprising: an insulation confirmation means comprised of a detection head, two lead wires and a signal means, said detection head being coupled to said signal means by said lead wires, said detection head having a plurality of electrodes arranged in parallel and spaced to correspond to the spacing between circuit elements, said plurality of electrodes being alternatively coupled to said lead wires, said signal means adapted to be actuated when a short circuit between lead wires is detected; a connecting means for connecting the elements after testing by said insulation confirmation means and comprised of a heat radiation source for heating solder used to connect the elements, a verticalLy movable pressing plate for pressing the wire elements to the circuit elements, said pressing plate being positioned adjacent said heat radiation source and being heat transparent, and means coupled to said heat source for moving said heat source along the elements being connected for proper heating; and an inspection means for inspection after said elements have been connected by said connecting means and comprised of a bridge circuit having two open terminals, a contact member connected with one open terminal of said bridge circuit and adapted to electrically contact all of said circuit elements via said pressing plate, a scanning member coupled to the other of said open terminals and adapted to sequentially scan the other ends of said circuit elements through said wire elements, and indication means coupled to said bridge circuit for indicating faultily connected wire elements, in response to the value of resistance between said terminals.