Rotational arm-type contact feeding system

A contact blank feeder for supplying blank electrical contacts to a device for crimping the contacts onto ends of electrical leads, the feeder comprising:

• (a) a substantially semi-cylindrical bowl for holding electrical contact blanks;
• (b) a rotatable arm having one end coupled to a drive motor and another end extending into the bowl so that the another end describes the locus of a circumference of a vertical circle when the arm rotates;
• (c) a scoop attached to the another end of the arm, the scoop adapted to capture and remove contact blanks from the contact feed bowl;
• (d) a chute located beneath an apogee of travel of the scoop to receive contact blanks falling under gravity from the scoop;
• (e) a pair of parallel spaced contact-orienting rails, the rails positioned beneath the chute to receive contact blanks from the chute, the spaced rails supporting the contact blanks therebetween, and the rails oriented at an angle to a horizontal plane to slide contact blanks toward lower ends of the rails;
• and
• (f) a shuttle gate at the lower ends of the rails, the gate blocking further movement of the contact blanks beyond the lower ends of the rails, the gate controlledly slidable transversely across said rails to allow passage of a single contact blank into a drop tube extending downward from near the lower ends of the rails for supplying the contact blank to the device for crimping the contact blanks onto ends of electrical leads.