At&t Bell Laboratories

At+t Corp.

At&t Technologies, Inc.

At&t Ipm Corp.

American Telephone and Telegraph Company, At&t Technologies, Inc.

Carl R Anderson

Gary G Seaman

Peretz Moshe Feder

George I Zysman

Paul R Comrie

A connector manipulating apparatus use a positioning mechanism to position a connector in a predefined location and orientation. A programmable positioning device or robot retrieves a connector from a first location using a locating tool, and places the connector in the positioning mechanism. After the positioning mechanism places the connector in a predefined location and orientation, the programmable positioning device moves the connector to a work location where conductors are attached to the connector.

Apparatus for manipulating connectors

A coiled cable handling apparatus uses a platform with retractable fingers to maintain the coiled configuration of a coiled cable. The coiled cable having a coiled portion, a first end thereof terminating in a connector and a second end. The reactable fingers contact the inner circumference of the coiled cable, a centrally located nest or clamp secures one end of the cable and a clip secures the other end of the cable. A cable transport mechanism places the coiled cable on the platform or removes it from the platform. The transport mechanism comprises coil pickup clamps to grasp the coiled section of the cable, a clamp to grasp the end of the cable secured by the platform's centrally located clamp, and a clamp to grasp the other end of the cable.

Apparatus for manipulating wound cables

A cable handling apparatus uses a reeling mechanism to reel a cable into a coiled configuration by securing one end of the cable to the reeling mechanism. A capture mechanism is used to locate the other end of the cable by using a channel to guide the cable as it is reeled, and a detector to detect the end of the cable as it enters the channel.

Method and apparatus for capturing and positioning a cable

A conductor handling apparatus uses a rotating disk to move a single conductor to a first position on a path where a conductor identifier is located. The conductor identifier identifies the conductor by completing a circuit used to detect a signal on the conductor. A controller rotates the disk in a direction based on the identity of the conductor, and a conductor unloader moves the conductor from the rotating disk. A conductor transfer mechanism moves the conductor from the unloader to a predetermined position where the conductor is inserted into a contact of a connector.

Method and apparatus for attaching connectors to a cable

A new architecture for a cellular radio telephone system groups all of the critical cellular functions within a single circuit package in order to provide enhanced versatility to accommodate changes in requirements, including processing means and channel changes in the cellular system by changing or replacing just the particular module itself.

Radio channel unit message and control signal processing architecture

A compact wire straightener module having a plurality of curved tubes for simultaneously straightening a large number of wires. Each tube bends its wire in a first plane and then bends the wire in a second plane perpendicular to the first plane. The wires are not pulled through the wire straightener module; but rather, after one end the wires has been secured, the wire straightener module moves in a horizontal direction along the wires to perform the straightening operation. This movement of the wire straightener module allows for use in a compact automatic cable assembly by eliminating the need for a separate mechanism to pull the wires through the wire straightener module. Further, each tube is a continuous assembly so that threading wire through the module is simple and fast.

Multiple wire straightener module for an automated cable assembly system

A hopper tray for receiving a bulk array for articles, all the same oblong shape and size, is disposed on one side of an elongated conveyer. The tray is angularly movable between an up position at which articles on the tray are discharged onto the conveyer and a down position. The articles are transported one at a time, to a zone at which they are stopped by their contact with a stop plate and their arrival is indicated by a signal fed from a photodetector to a controller. A failure of an article to timely arrive at the zone indicates a probable jamming upstream of articles, and the controller responds to cause a temporary reverse movement of the conveyer tending to relieve the jam. The article stopped by the plate is, if at an angle, reoriented to bear flush against the plate, either lengthwise or widthwise to the conveyer, by the force exerted on the articles by the continuing movement of the conveyer. A probe senses whether the articles have been oriented lengthwise or widthwise. If widthwise, the stop plate is moved by a piston to locate the length axis of the stopped article in the position occupied by the width axis of lengthwise articles when stopped. The stopped articles are adapted to be removed from the zone by a robot unit. To prevent interference with such removal the next article is temporarily clamped against a guide wall on one side of the conveyer.

Apparatus and methods for handling bulk arrays of articles

Apparatus and methods for inserting leads of an electric circuit component into correspondingly arranged holes in a printed wiring board by (a) holding the component by a robotic arm adjacent the board so that its leads contact the board under pressure and are in nominal registration in the X and Y directions, and (b) subjecting the board to the combined effect of two vibrating motions which are respectively directed in these two directions, and of which one is superimposed on the other. These two motions are each controlled in frequency and amplitude and differ from each other in a motion characteristic whereby the leads sweep in two-dimensional patterns over board areas respective to their corresponding holes and centrally including them until the leads substantially exactly register with the holes to become inserted therein by the pressure on the leads.

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Arvada, CO, United States of America

Carl R Anderson