Amp LLC

Keith A Bocchicchio

David L Hall

Mark F Jackson

Karl H Letsch

Edward J Paukovits, Jr

Joseph R Keller

Glenn I Hoffner

An apparatus for heat staking plastic parts to other parts to form an assembly are featured, using multiple heating elements which are arranged in zones and which are separately programmable in terms of temperature and displacement to develop optimum deformation of plastic having different characteristics. The heating elements are isolated thermally to provide an improved conservation of heat energy.

Heat staking apparatus

Apparatus (24) for feeding electrical connectors from slide packs (SP), to a pick and place robot (2), comprises an elevator (44) which is raised to pick the lowermost pack (SP') from a stack of packs (SP) in a magazine (36). The elevator (44) is then lowered into a connector feed position in which a ram (54) on a flexible chain (52) is run step by step through the pack (SP') on the elevator (44) to place each connector (C) in the pack (SP'), in turn, at a pick-up station (26) to be picked up by the robot (2). When the pack (SP') on the elevator (44) has been emptied of connectors (C), the elevator (44) is raised and the ram (54) is advanced in one stroke beneath pack (SP') on the elevator (44) and a latch (56) on the ram (54) rises to engage the end of the empty pack (SP') nearest to the pick-up station (26). The ram (54) is then retracted, in one stroke, to eject the empty pack (SP') from the apparatus (24).

Electrical connector feeding apparatus

Apparatus for clinching rivets on electrical connectors to the bottom of a circuit board, comprises a frame in which a shuttle for supporting the board is movable along a rectilinear horizontal path by means of a robot which places the connectors on the board. Two jaw carriages provided with rivet clinching jaws are mounted in the frame beneath the shuttle for movement towards and away from one another by means of cam tracks on the shuttle and cam follower rails on the jaw carriages. The cam tracks are so shaped that the clinching jaws will clinch the rivets where the connectors are placed on the board in longitudinally offset relationship according to the program of the robot. Each jaw carriage has a jaw drive unit thereon which is operated to open and close the jaws according to the robot program.

Apparatus for clinching workpieces to a board

A robot pick-up head for an electrical connector with a hollow rivet at each end, comprises a body for attachment to the Z axis shaft of a robot. In the body are a pair of spring loaded pins, one on each side of the Z axis, and between the pins, is a spring loaded vacuum block. The pins terminate in tapered spigots for insertion into the hollow rivets. When the connector is to be picked up, the spigots are inserted into the rivets with the full force of the robot so that if the rivets are initially canted with respect to the connector, the rivets are straightened. The vacuum block then engages the housing of the connector and is evacuated so that the connector is picked up as the robot shaft rises. The loading springs of the vacuum block are softer than those of the pins so that the connector housing is not damaged when it is engaged by the vacuum block.

Growing community of inventors

Middletown, PA, United States of America

Keith A Bocchicchio