Connector

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No.CN201510683384.6 filed on October 20, 2015 in the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the whole disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a system for determining mounting state of pins of terminals on an electronic connector, particularly to a system for determining mounting state of pins of terminals on an electronic connector using an image capturing device.

Description of the Related Art

In the prior art, an electronic connector mainly includes an insulating housing and a plurality of connecting terminals mounted in the insulating housing. In some electronic connectors, several terminals are constructed to extend from the insulating housing to form pins electrically or mechanically connected to an electronic device, such as a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) or other electronic connectors. The pins are arranged in predetermined order (e.g., in matrix). Correspondingly, the electronic device is provided with insertion holes matched with these pins.

To ensure each pin of the electronic connector to be smoothly inserted into a corresponding insertion hole, it is desirable to maintain each pin to extend out of the insulating housing in a predetermined gesture, such as perpendicular to a surface of the insulating housing. Thus, in the process of manufacturing an electronic connector in the factory, it is necessary to detect mounting state of pins on the electronic connector. If mounting state of any of the pins on the electronic connector is identified not to meet predetermined requirements through detecting, the electronic connector is determined as disqualified.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made to overcome or alleviate at least one aspect of the above mentioned disadvantages.

According to an object of the present disclosure, there is provided a system for determining mounting state of pins of an electronic connector, which may determine the mounting state of the pins on the electronic connector accurately and quickly.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a system for determining mounting state of pins of an electronic connector protruding from a mounting surface of an insulating housing of the electronic connector. The system includes: a positioning device constructed to position the electronic connector; an image capturing device constructed to capture an image of a pin to be detected in a direction which is at an acute angle with respect to an extending direction of an ideal pin protruding perpendicularly from the mounting surface; and an identifying device constructed to identify whether the captured image is fallen within a predetermined region, and determine a mounting state of the detected pin as unqualified when identifying that the captured image of the pin extends beyond the predetermined region.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the predetermined region comprises a plane region defined by an ellipse which follows an equation below in a rectangular coordinate system:

wherein, T=C* L*sin a, and T ' = C*L*sin β - C*L*sin ( β ^~ α), and

wherein L is a length by which an ideal pin protrudes from the mounting surface, a is the largest allowable inclined angle of a detected pin with respect to the ideal pin, β is an angle between the capturing direction of the image capturing device and a direction in which the ideal pin extends, and C is a magnification of the image captured by the image capturing device relative to a detected pin.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the largest allowable inclined angle of a detected pin with respect to the ideal pin is smaller than the angle between the capturing direction of the image capturing device and a direction in which the ideal pin extends.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the system further comprises a carrying device constructed to carry the image capturing device.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the carrying device is further constructed to adjust the distance between the image capturing device and the electronic connector and the gesture of the image capturing device relative to the electronic connector.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the carrying device comprises: a base mounted on a mounting frame; a rail mechanism vertically mounted on the base; a sliding mechanism slidablely mounted on the rail mechanism; a rotating arm mounted on the sliding mechanism in a manner of being rotatable relative to the rail mechanism; an inclined arm mounted on the rotating arm to rotate relative to the rail mechanism, and a telescopic arm mounted on the inclined arm in a manner of being retractable relative to the inclined arm, with the image capturing device being mounted on the telescopic arm.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the system further comprises a grasping device constructed to move a corresponding electronic connector to an apparatus for storing unqualified products, when mounting state of the detected pin is determined as unqualified.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the positioning device further comprises a manipulator.

In the systems for determining mounting state of the pins of the electronic connector according to the above various embodiments of the present disclosure, the mounting state of the pins on the electronic connector may be identified accurately and quickly, and the operation of indentifying whether or not the mounting state of the detected pins is qualified may be achieved on line and with real time, reducing manual labor and thereby cost of manufacturing of the electronic connectors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features of the present disclosure will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig.1 is an illustrative perspective view of a system for determining mounting state of pins of an electronic connector according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig.2 is a schematic view showing a detecting principle of the system in Fig. l;

Fig.3 is a side view showing an ideal (or vertical) mounting state of the pins of terminals to be detected on an insulating housing;

Fig.4 is a schematic view showing an image of the vertical pins shown in Fig.3 obtained by the system shown in Fig. l;

Fig.5 is a principle schematic view of capturing an image of two pins using an inclined image capturing device, wherein the ideal pin or vertical pin is shown in solid line and the inclined pin is shown in dash line;

Fig.6 is a schematic view of the geometrical principle for achieving the image capturing manner shown in Fig.5; Fig. 7 is a side view showing one possible mounting state of three pins mounted on the insulating housing;

Fig.8 is a schematic view showing an image of the three pins shown in Fig.7 obtained by the system shown in Fig. l, wherein the ellipse pattern represents an allowable boundary for the image of the pins.

Fig.9 is an illustrative perspective view of a system for determining mounting state of pins of an electronic connector according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig.10 is a schematic view showing a detecting principle of the system in Fig.9;

Fig.11 is a principle schematic view of capturing an image of two pins by an vertical image capturing device, wherein the ideal pin or vertical pin is shown in solid line and the inclined pin is shown in dash line;

Fig.12 is a schematic view of the geometrical principle for achieving the image capturing manner shown in Fig.11 ;

Fig.13 is a schematic view showing an image of the vertical (or ideal) pin obtained by the system shown in Fig.9, wherein the circle in the figure represents an allowable boundary for the image of the pins.

Fig.14 is a schematic view showing an image of the three pins shown in Fig.3 obtained by the system shown in Fig.9; and

Fig.15 is a schematic view showing an image of the three pins shown in Fig.7 obtained by the system shown in Fig.9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE IVENTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described hereinafter in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein the like reference numerals refer to the like elements. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiment set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.

According to a general concept of the present disclosure, there is provided a system for determining mounting state of pins of an electronic connector protruding from a mounting surface of an insulating housing of the electronic connector. The system comprises: a positioning device constructed to position the electronic connector; an image capturing device constructed to capture an image of a pin of the electronic connector to be detected; and an identifying device constructed to identify whether the captured image is fallen within a predetermined region, and to determine a mounting state of the pin to be unqualified when identifying that the captured image of the pin extends beyond the predetermined region.

Fig.1 is an illustrative perspective view of a system for determining mounting state of pins of an electronic connector according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig.2 is a schematic view showing a detecting principle of the system in Fig. l . Fig.3 is a side view showing an ideal (or vertical) mounting state of the pins of terminals to be detected on an insulating housing. Fig. 7 is a side view showing one possible mounting state of three pins mounted on the insulating housing.

As shown in Figs. l and 2, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a system for determining mounting state of pins 201 of an electronic connector 100, the pins 201 protruding from a mounting surface of an insulating housing 202 of the electronic connector and thus being electrically or mechanically connected to, for example, a Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) or other electronic connectors in a plug-in manner to transmit electrical signals therebetween. Fig.3 shows an ideal mounting state of the pins, i.e., pins extend out of the insulating housing in a manner perpendicular to the mounting surface 203 of the insulating housing 202. However, due to limits of operating conditions, an actual state of the pins may be arranged as shown in Fig.7, that is, some pins 201 extend out of mounting surface 203 of the insulating housing 202 in an inclined manner. In order to smoothly insert the pins into the printed circuit board (not shown), it is desirable to maintain the inclined angles of the pins not to exceed predetermined range, for example, not to exceed 20 degrees, otherwise, it is possible that the pins is curved and/or the circuit board is damaged during insertion of the pins into the circuit board, causing products to be unqualified.

Fig.4 is a schematic view showing an image of the vertical pins shown in Fig.3 obtained using the system shown in Fig. l . Fig. 7 is a side view showing one possible mounting state of three pins mounted on the insulating housing. Fig.8 is a schematic view showing an image of the three pins shown in Fig.7 obtained by the system shown in Fig. l, wherein the ellipse pattern represents an allowable boundary for the image of the pins.

As shown in Figs 1, 2, 4, 7 and 8, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the system for determining mounting state of the pins 201 of the electronic connector 100 comprises: a positioning device (not shown) constructed to position the electronic connector 100, wherein embodiments of the positioning device include but are not limited to devices for positioning the electronic connector 100, such as a conveyor belt, a manipulator, etc.; an image capturing device 1 constructed to capture an image 11 of the pins 201 of the electronic connector 100; and an identifying device 2 constructed to identify whether or not the captured image 11 is fallen within a predetermined region 3, and determine a mounting state of the pin to be unqualified when identifying that the captured image of the pin extends beyond the predetermined region 3. A position and a gesture of the image capturing device 1 is unvariable relative to the electronic connector 100, that is, images of identical electronic connectors 100 captured in the image capturing device 1 have identical sizes, shapes and positions. The predetermined region 3 is pre-stored in the identifying device 2.

Through using the system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, operation of indentifying whether or not the mounting state of the pins is qualified may be achieved on line and in real time, manual labor for identifying and thereby the cost of manufacturing of the electronic connectors is reduced.

Fig.5 is a principle schematic view of capturing an image of two pins by an inclined image capturing device, wherein an ideal pin or a vertical pin is shown in solid line and the inclined pin is shown in dash line; Fig.6 is a schematic view of the geometrical principle for achieving the image capturing manner shown in Fig.5.

As shown in Figs.5 and 6, in one embodiment, the image capturing device 1 is positioned to capture an image of the pin 2012 in a direction which is at an acute angle β with respect to an extending direction of an ideal pin 2011 (Z direction shown in Fig.5). A length by which the ideal pin 2011 extends out of the mounting surface 203 of the insulating housing 202 is L. The pin 2012 to be detected is inclined with respect to the ideal pin 2011 and extends out of the mounting surface also by a length of L.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the predetermined region 3 comprises a plane region defined by an ellipse 31. Specifically, the ellipse 31 satisfies an equation below in a rectangular coordinate system:

wherein, T=C* L*sin a, and T ' = C*L*sin β - C*L*sin ( β ^~ α), and

wherein a is the largest allowable inclined angle of the pin 2012 to be detected with respect to the ideal pin 2011, β is an angle between the capturing direction of the image capturing device and a direction in which the ideal pin 2011 extends, and C is a magnification of the image captured by the image capturing device 1 relative to the detected pin 2012.

Referring to Figs. 5 and 6, in order to obtain the predetermined region 3 defined by the ellipse 31, in a three-dimensional coordinate system defined by X, Y, and Z axes, supposing that the ideal pin 2011 is located at the Z-axis, the detected pin 2012 with the largest allowable inclined angle a is inclined relative to the Z-axis only in the Y-axis but not in the X-axis, the lengths by which the ideal pin 2011 and the detected pin 2012 extend out of the mounting surface are both L, and in a plane defined by the Y and Z axes, an angle between the capturing direction of the image capturing device 1 and a direction in which the ideal pin 2011 extends is β , then:

the distance between an end a of the ideal pin 2011 and an end b of the detected pin 2012 is :T= L*sina _;

The difference between a distance between the end a of the ideal pin 2011 and a central axis of the image capturing device 1 and a distance between the end b of the detected pin 2012 and the central axis of the image capturing device 1 is:

T ' =distance ( a, a' ) - distance (b, b' ) = L*sin - L*sin ( β -a) .

Further considering the magnification C of the image captured by the image capturing device 1 relative to the detected pin 2012, the above equation for the ellipse is obtained.

Fig.7 shows three types of three pins 2012, 2013 and 2014 extending out of the mounting surface 203 of the insulating housing 202, images of the three pins captured in the image captured device 1 are shown in Fig.8, wherein the image of the detected pin 2013 is referred to by a reference number 111, the image of the detected pin 2012 by a reference number 112 and the image of the detected pin 2014 by a reference number 113. In this case, the identifying device 2 may determine that the respective captured images 112 and 111 of the detected pins 2012 and 2013 are fallen within the predetermined region 3 defined by the ellipse 31, thus the mounting state of the detected pins 2012 and 2013 is qualified, while the image 113 of the detected pin 2014 extends beyond the predetermined region 3 defined by the ellipse 31, indicating that the inclined angle of the detected pin 2014 extends beyond an allowable limit and the mounting state of the detected pin 2014 is unqualified.

In the system for determining mounting state of the pins of the electronic connector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, since the image capturing device 1 is positioned to capture the image of a detected pin 2012 in the direction which is at the acute angle β with respect to the extending direction of the ideal pin 2011, the captured image includes an image of a rod portion and an end of the detected pin, the area of the captured image is increased, improving identification precision and accuracy and thus avoiding misjudgment. In the case where the magnification C of the image captured by the image capturing device 1 relative to the detected pin 2012 is constant, the distance between the electronic connector 100 and the image capturing device 1 may not be considered, and there is no special limit to a light source for image capturing operation, thus flexibility of detecting operation is improved and cost of detecting is reduced.

In one embodiment, the largest allowable inclined angle a of a detected pin 2012 with respect to the ideal pin 2011 is larger than the angle β between the capturing direction of the image capturing device 1 and a direction in which the ideal pin 2011 extends, thus ensuring images of qualified pins are fallen within a predetermined region, facilitating indentifying of unqualified pins.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the system for determining mounting state of the pins of the electronic connector further comprises a carrying device constructed to carry the image capturing device 1. The carrying device is further constructed to adjust the distance between the image capturing device 1 and the electronic connector 100 and the gesture of the image capturing device 1 relative to the electronic connector 100. Thus, in a plane defined by the Y and Z axes, the capturing direction of the image capturing device 1 may be set to be at an angle β with respect to a direction in which the ideal pin 2011 extends.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in Fig. l, the carrying device comprises: a base 41 mounted on a mounting frame (not shown); a rail mechanism 42 vertically mounted on the base 41; a sliding mechanism 43 slidablely mounted on the rail mechanism in the vertical direction; a rotating arm 44 mounted on the sliding mechanism 43 in a manner of being rotatable relative to the rail mechanism; an inclined arm 45 mounted on the rotating arm 44 to rotate relative to the rail mechanism 42; and a telescopic arm 46 mounted on the inclined arm 45 in a manner of being retractable relative to the inclined arm 45, the image capturing device 1 being mounted on the telescopic arm 45. Thus, in the case that the electronic connector 100 having been positioned, the distance between the image capturing device 1 and the electronic connector 100 and the gesture of the image capturing device 1 relative to the electronic connector 100 may be adjusted in conjunction with at least one motion manner including sliding, rotating, inclining and retracting, so that the angle of the capturing direction of the image capturing device 1 with respect to a direction in which the ideal pin 2011 extends in a plane defined by the Y and Z axes may be set as β . Although it is now shown, it should be appreciated that the carrying device further comprises at least one driving device, such as servo motor, to achieve motion operations of sliding, rotating, inclining, retracting, etc.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the system for determining mounting state of the pins of the electronic connector further comprises a grasping device constructed to move a corresponding electronic connector to an apparatus for storing unqualified products, when mounting state of the detected pin of the electronic connector is determined as unqualified.

Fig.9 is an illustrative perspective view of a system for determining mounting state of pins of an electronic connector according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig.10 is a schematic view showing a detecting principle of the system in Fig.9. The system shown in Figs. 9 and 10 differs from that shown in Fig. l in that: the image capturing device 1 shown in Figs.9 and 10 is positioned to capture images of the detected pins in a direction in which the ideal pin 201 extends, wherein the ideal pin 201 extends out of the mounting surface perpendicularly and the length by which the ideal pin 201 extends out of the mounting surface 203 is L.

Further, in the system shown in Fig.9, as shown in Figs.11-13, the predetermined region 3' comprises a plane region defined by a circle 32 which satisfies an equation below in a rectangular coordinate system:

X ² +Y ² = (C*L*sin a) ² ,

wherein a is the largest allowable inclined angle of the pin 2012 to be detected with respect to the ideal pin 2011, and C is a magnification of the image captured by the image capturing device relative to a detected pin 2012. In this case, if the identifying device 2 identifies that the image of the detected pin is fallen within the predetermined region 3', then the mounting state of the detected pin is determined to be qualified; otherwise, when the image of the detected pin extends beyond the predetermined region 3' defined by the circle 32, it is indicated that the inclined angle of the detected pin exceeds an allowable limit and the mounting state of the detected pin is unqualified.

In the system according to the embodiment shown in Fig.9, since the image capturing device 1 is positioned to capture images of the detected pins in a direction in which the ideal pin 201 extends, the obtained image mainly comprises image of ends of the detected pins, causing an area of the obtained image to be smaller. As shown in Fig.14, in the case that the detected pin is generally perpendicular to the mounting surface of the insulating housing, the captured image 114 has larger area and is clearer, then identification may be performed. However, as shown in Fig.15, in the case that the detected pin has a larger inclined angle, since the end of the detected pin is generally provided with a chamfering structure, the captured image may be smaller and not clear, causing lower identification precision and accuracy and phenomenon of misjudgment.

In the systems for determining the mounting state of the pins of the electronic connector according to the above various embodiments of the present disclosure, the operation of indentifying whether or not the mounting state of the detected pins is qualified may be achieved on line and in real time, reducing manual labor and thereby cost of manufacturing of the electronic connectors. Further, since the image capturing device captures the image of a detected pin in the direction which is at the acute angle β with respect to the extending direction of the ideal pin, the area of the captured image is increased, improving identification precision and accuracy and thus avoiding phenomenon of misjudgment.

It should be appreciated for those skilled in this art that the above embodiments are intended to be illustrated, and not restrictive. For example, many modifications may be made to the above embodiments by those skilled in this art, and various features described in different embodiments may be freely combined with each other without conflicting in configuration or principle.

Although several exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.