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US 4,665,954 AGranted
High-speed electronic component lead forming apparatus and method
AssigneeAmerican Tech Manufacturing, Inc.
InventorsFrank V. Linker, Frank V. Linker, Jr.
Life of this patent
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AssigneeAmerican Tech Manufacturing, Inc.
InventorsFrank V. Linker, Frank V. Linker, Jr.
Estimating the term…
In apparatus for disposing DIP leads in a predetermined and preselected condition of straightness and orientation, a trackway for operatively supporting and moving DIPs therealong from a loading station to a discharge station, a forming station positioned along the trackway subsequent to said entrance station. The forming station includes laterally spaced rotatable forming rollers on opposite sides of the trackway, anvils confronting the inner faces of the leads between the forming rollers and anvils. The rollers and anvil having cooperating confronting surfaces adapted to engage the DIP leads adjacent the shoulder to the outer terminal ends, the forming rollers cooperatively associated with the anvils and spaced therefrom to define a nip gap. DIPs are moved through the nip gap whereby DIP leads are contacted to align them in predetermined orientation and at a predetermined angle relative to the body portion.
In a system for orientating and straightening DIP leads and for imparting a predetermined angle of divergence to the leads with respect to a DIP body, an inclined trackway adapted for supporting DIP's therealong from an inlet through a plurality of operating stations, a first said operating station along said trackway being a geometric forming station, said geometric forming station including spaced rotatable nip rolls, spaced rotatable forming rolls cooperating with said nip rolls, main forming driving wheels having a plurality of grooves therein, mounting belts operatively interconnectibly mounting said driving wheels and said forming rolls and said nip rolls and operable to engage said DIP leads slightly below the DIP lead shoulders to advance DIPs to a forming station, said forming station comprising spring biased anvil means having surfaces confronting said forming rollers to engage DIP leads adjacent the shoulder to the outer terminal ends, means movably mounting said forming rollers and cooperating anvil means to permit variation in the nip gap therebetween to accommodate leads of varying thickness and means for selectively pivoting said anvil means and forming rollers as a unit for operatively imparting a predetermined angle of divergence to said leads with respect to said DIP body.
In apparatus for handling DIP devices comprising a body portion and a plurality of leads projecting from the body portion at a predetermined angle and orientation relative to the body portion, a trackway for conveying DIP devices from a loading station to a plurality of discharge stations and switching mechanism actuatable between limit positions for selectively directing the DIP devices from the trackway to a selected one of the discharge stations, said switching mechanism comprising a fixed main switch track section having cross-over grooves formed therein which is aligned with the main trackway and one of the discharge stations and auxiliary switch track sections on either side of said main switch track section and actuatable laterally relative to said main switch track section between a first limit position wherein said auxiliary track sections are equispaced relative to said main track section whereby DIP devices pass from the trackway through the main track section to the discharge station aligned therewith and second limit positions wherein the DIP devices pass from the trackway and are directed by the cross-over grooves to other discharge stations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.