Method and apparatus for notching a lead wire attached to an IC chip to facilitate severing the wire

A notcher for notching a wire to facilitate separation of the wire at the notched location, comprising in combination:

• a mounting structure;
• a blade member mounted on said mounting structure, the blade member including a pair of spaced blade portions moveable into a straddling relationship with the wire and also moveable in a reciprocating manner into and out of notching engagement with the wire positioned therebetween;
• actuating means mounted on said mounting structure and operative for linearly moving the blade member to position the blade portions into and out of the straddling relationship with the wire and for separately and independently moving the blade portions reciprocatively into and out of notching engagement with the wire, the linear movement of the blade member being separate and distinct from the reciprocating movement of the blade portions during notching engagement with the wire, the notching engagement of the wire occurring while the blade member has ceased linear movement;
• the actuating means further including carriage means connected to the blade member and operative for linearly moving the blade member between an extended position in which the blade portions straddle the wire and a retracted position in which the blade portions are not straddling the wire;
• the carriage means further operatively inducing movement of the blade portions toward one another during notching engagement with the wire, and further comprising:
• sleeve means operatively connected to the blade member and operative when moved linearly for moving the blade member between the extended and retracted positions;
• and
• slidable means operatively positioned to contact the blade member and induce inward flexing movement of the blade portions toward one another to reciprocate the blade portions into notching engagement with the wire.

A notcher for notching a wire to facilitate a separation of the wire at the notched location, comprising in combination:

• a mounting structure;
• an elongated sleeve carriage member mounted on said mounting structure for linear reciprocating movement;
• an elongated slide member mounted for relative linear slideable movement with respect to the sleeve carriage member;
• a blade member attached to the forward end of said slide member, the blade member including a pair of flexible resilient elongated parallelly-disposed arms, each arm including a blade portion for cutting a notch in the wire;
• a first deflection cam surface formed on each arm;
• a second deflection cam surface formed on the forward end of the sleeve carriage member;
• the first and second deflection cam surfaces operatively contacting and camming against one another with relative longitudinal movement of the carriage sleeve and slide members;
• the arms of the blade member reciprocatively deflecting toward and away from one another upon the cam surfaces camming against one another, the deflection of the arms inducing the blade portions into notching engagement with the wire when the wire is positioned between the blade portions and the arms are flexed inwardly toward each other;
• and
• actuating means mounted on said mounting structure and operative for contacting and inducing linear movement of the carriage sleeve member and the slide member, the actuating means first linearly advancing the carriage sleeve member and the slide member in unison to an extended position in which the separated blade portions straddle the wire, after having reached the extended position the actuating means next linearly moving the slide member relative to the carriage sleeve member to induce reciprocative movement of the arms and notching of the wire between the blade portions, and after completing the reciprocative notching movement the actuating means thereafter linearly retracting the carriage sleeve member and the slide member in unison to a retracted position.

A method of forming a notch in a wire with a pair of spaced apart cutting blades to facilitate a subsequent separation of the wire by applying linear tensile separation force to a remaining portion of the wire at the notched location, comprising the steps of:

• moving the cutting blades for reciprocative movement toward and away from each other,
• moving the blades into and out of straddling relationship with the wire,
• moving the blades into straddling relationship with the wire,
• subsequently moving the blades into notching engagement with the wire to leave a remaining portion of the wire at the notched location,
• removing the blades from notching engagement with the wire after creation of the remaining portion, and
• removing the blades from straddling engagement with the wire.