Western Electric Company, Inc.

At&t Bell Laboratories

American Telephone and Telegraph, Co.

At&t Technologies, Inc.

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

Richard A Greene

Robert P Kennedy

William A Elliott

Robert P Poe, Jr

William H Steece

Asar Madhu P

A component insertion machine having apparatus for mounting component magazines and arranged for loading components therefrom into the component insertion machine. Shuttle apparatus transversely positioned on th e mounting apparatus is arranged to receive ones of the component magazines and is slidably operable for laterally displacing one received component magazine with other received component magazines to maintain a continuous supply of components to the component insertion machine.

Component insertion machine apparatus

Apparatus for loading components into a component insertion machine. The aratus comprises structure releasably mounted on component magazine loading apparatus to retain components in component magazines received by and aligned in the component magazine loading apparatus. The structure is removable after installation of the component loading apparatus on the component insertion machine to enable components to be selected by the component insertion machine from the component magazines.

Apparatus for loading components into a component insertion machine. The apparatus comprises structure releasably mounted on component magazine loading apparatus to retain components in component magazines received by and aligned in the component magazine loading apparatus. The structure is removable after installation of the component loading apparatus on the component insertion machine to enable components to be selected by the component insertion machine from the component magazines.

An apparatus (10) and methods are disclosed for preparing the terminated end of a flat cable (25) for connectorization wherein the cable is of the type having two arrays of overlying/underlying conductors (27, 28) separated by an insulative center film (31), with each array being bonded directly to only the respectively adjacent one of two mutually disposed outer insulative films (33, 34), and wherein an aligned pair of isolating members (36, 37) are respectively positioned between, and transversely of, a different side of the center film the associated array of conductors at each predetermined terminating end of the cable, as fabricated. The apparatus includes a cross-slide assembly (12, 41), a flare-out die mechanism (14, 97), an optional trimming die mechanism (16, 134, 136) and a fold-back roller mechanism (18, 151, 167, 168). Such a composite apparatus sequentially performs the following operation on the terminated end of the described type of flat cable: (1) sequentially flare-out (separate and bend) terminated end sections (33a, 34a) of the outer cable films, together with the respective coextensive arrays of conductor end portions (27a, 28a) bonded thereto, preferably approximately 90 degrees from the normal plane of the mutually contacting one of the two leading isolating members (36 or 37); (2) trim each such bent cable end section to a predetermined length, and (3) sharply fold-back each such trimmed end section against the remaining adjacent portion of the cable so as to then fully expose the previously inner major sides of the conductor end portions (27a, 28a) in each array for subsequent connectorization.

Methods and apparatus for preparing the terminated end of flat cable for

A taping apparatus (10) is disclosed for applying a spaced array of transversely oriented material strips, such as in the form of plastic tapes (36), on each side of indexably advanced strip stock, such as in the form of a thin plastic film (12), during each dwell period of the latter, with corresponding tapes on opposite sides of the film being precisely aligned in pairs. The apparatus includes a film advancing assembly (13, 14, 16, 22, 24, 32), two mutually disposed tape applicator mechanisms (28, 29), a specially constructed platen assembly (26), mounted on a longitudinally disposed U-shaped support bed (27), and a control circuit (33). In order to provide the necessary solid backing for each of the tape applicator mechanisms (28, 29) when sequentially actuated, the platen assembly (26) includes a platen (90) formed with two longitudinally offset segments (91, 92) positioned at different elevations so as to define a film-receiving passageway (94) therebetween. The platen segments are retractably mounted on the support bed (27) such that they define film-guiding extensions of the bed across an opening (27b) formed therein. As thus constructed, and mounted, the platen segments (91, 92) can be rapidly positioned, in succession, into alignment with the respectively associated opposite film-side tape applicator mechanisms (28, 29). This advantageously allows two precisely aligned tapes (36) to be successively and respectively secured to opposite sides of the film (12) during each dwell period thereof.

Growing community of inventors

Pickerington, OH, United States of America

Richard A Greene