Wire lead clamping mechanism for wire lead production apparatus

Apparatus for high-speed production of sets of accurately and identically sized wire leads comprising:

• a feed mechanism having means for simultaneously drawing a plurality of separate strands of wire from a plurality of wire reels;
• mechanism having means for simultaneously straightening and arranging the strands drawn therethrough in parallel spaced apart relationship in a common generally horizontal plane;
• a severing mechanism having means for simultaneously severing sets of wire segments of predetermined length from the strands;
• conveyor clamps having means for receiving sets of wire segments from said feed mechanism and for releasably gripping said sets of wire segments in parallel spaced apart relationship in a common generally horizontal plane;
• at least one processing mechanism having means for performing a work operation on the ends of said sets of wire segments;
• a collecting station for receiving said leads after the work operation has been performed thereon;
• conveyor means for advancing the conveyor clamps and sets of wire segments therein through said processing mechanism and to said collecting station;
• and conveyor clamp actuator mechanisms having means for causing the conveyor clamps to initially receive sets of wire segments from said feed mechanism for conveyance and to subsequently release the finished leads for deposit at said collecting station.