US 6,719,518 B2 · Portable tube holder apparatus

Abstract

A portable tube holder apparatus and tube loading method facilitates safe and rapid loading of tubes containing electronic components into a machine. The tube holder has a tube guide sized to receive a plurality of tubes and a support to selectively hold the tubes in that guide. The holder can be loaded with a relatively large number of tubes at a workstation area and then used to safely transport the tubes to the machine without risk of the components falling out of the tubes. The support, which is preferably slidable, permits all of the tubes in the guide to be readily released into the machine's feeding system, enabling fast loading of the machine and also minimizing down-time for machines that cannot run while being loaded. The portable tube holder preferably has an interface designed to facilitate alignment of the tube holder's guide with the feeding system guide in the machine.

Claims19

Dependent claims

An apparatus for loading tubes into a machine comprising:

a tube guide sized to receive a plurality of tubes;
a support coupled to the guide, the support selectively holding the plurality of tubes in the guide;
an interface connected to the tube guide and configured to facilitate alignment of the guide with a feeding system guide of the machine;
and wherein the apparatus is portable and the interface comprises feet connected to the bottom of the tube guide having bottom surfaces designed to dovetail with walls of the feeding system guide of the machine.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Portable tube holder apparatus

Life of this patent

Portable tube holder apparatus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19