Gte Automatic Electric Laboratories Incorporated

Donald H Daebler

John H Morgan

A substrate grader accepts or rejects a substrate depending upon the degree of warp and then sorts the accepted substrates according to a dimension thereof. The grader comprises a first plate which is U-shaped and inclined at an acute angle with respect to the horizontal, the two arms of the first plate extending above the base thereof. A first elongated member (or lower guide) that is attached to the front of the base has a straight side which is adjacent to and spaced a short distance away from the opening in the first plate. A second elongated member, that is attached to the back of the free ends of the arms, supports a second plate (or upper guide) thereon which extends between the arms, which has a top surface in a plane containing the top surfaces of the arms and base, and which has a stepped edge in the opening. Successive stepped surfaces of this edge are parallel to and spaced progressively farther from the straight surface of the first member such that rectangular substrates contacting these spaced apart surfaces may fall through an opening therebetween to be sorted according to ranges of the length thereof. A pair of flat plates that are supported a prescribed distance above one arm receive substrates therebetween for measuring warp in the substrates. The first plate is mounted on a vibrator which causes substrates to move across this plate.

Apparatus and method for sorting substrates

The dies here comprise opposed sets of parallel-elongated members which are arranged for engagement to form component leads. Members at opposite ends of the dies cooperate in pairs to cut axial leads of a component positioned between the dies to prescribed lengths when the dies are engaged. A third member of one die has a slot through one of a pair of opposite sides thereof that are adjacent one end thereof and the component. A second pair of elongated members of the other die are positioned to move adjacent the opposite sides of the third member. When one lead of a component is held against the one end of the third member, with one ends of the second pair of members being proximate the component body and the free end of the one lead, engagement of the dies causes the second pair of members to force a portion of the component body into the slot and the one lead adjacent to the other opposite side of the third member to form the component leads into a hairpin pattern.

Die set for forming axial leads of electrical component into hairpin

Box capacitors are loaded onto an in-line track feeder with the capacitor leads extending downward between a pair of tracks. Vibration of the tracks moves the capacitors thereon so that the capacitor leads pass between the meshing teeth of a drive gear and an idler gear that is caused to turn by the former. The tracks are spaced from the gears to prevent damping of vibrations of the former. The leading edges of the teeth on the gears have a radius thereon for providing smooth feeding action of the capacitor leads between the gear teeth. The drive gear also has a chamfer on the top edges of the teeth thereof to reduce the possibility of jamming on components with bent leads. A disk is attached to the underside of the idler gear for cutting the component leads to a prescribed length as they pass between the disk and the drive gear. The ends of the teeth on the idler gear are truncated such that a cut lead is compressed into a valley between teeth on the drive gear to thereby straighten these leads.

Growing community of inventors

Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Donald H Daebler