Delaware Capital Formation, Inc.

Auto Splice Systems Inc.

Richard Howe

Scott C Proctor

Peter Gregory Davis

Robert Martin Bogursky

Giuseppe Bianca

David W Lyndaker

Douglas P Green

John Hover

The present invention is a method and apparatus conveying a roll of liner stock bearing removably adhered components such as labels. The liner is pulled through the feeder by a capstan drive having opposed fluted nip rollers driven by a stepper motor. Advance of the stepper motor is controlled by a programmable electronic controller. The linered labels are led through a tensioner and around an acute-angle peeler edge which separates the labels from the liner. The peeling action advances a label onto a platform comprising a bed of rollers having an inherently low-adherence surface. Preferably the rollers are undercut to form circumferential ridges and reduce the surface area in contact with the label adhesive and to minimize adherence thereto. When peeling of a label is completed, the label has been advanced onto the roller bed to precisely the proper location for acquisition by a pick-and-place machine. The presence of a label on the platform is confirmed by a sensor that signals the controller to stop further liner advance. The signal also serves to reset the feeder for advance of the next label after the first label is picked from the roller bed.

Surface mount assembly system with integral label feeder

A feeder for a pick and place machine used in connection with the mounting of small discrete parts such as electrical and mechanical components comprises a frame and mechanisms connected to the frame for advancing a carrier tape product from a supply reel. The carrier tape product preferably includes a pair of spaced apart continuous parallel carrier tapes having a series of longitudinally spaced parts with opposite sides molded over adjacent inner side edges of corresponding ones of the carrier tapes so that each part bridges the two carrier tapes. The feeder further comprises a separation station mounted to the frame for receiving the carrier tape from the supply reel. Mechanisms in the separation station are provided for exerting a sufficient force between a part in the separation station and the carrier tape to physically separate the part from the carrier tape without substantially displacing the part from a predetermined location on the separation station so as to impair the ability of the head of a pick and place machine to pick up the part. Preferably the force is exerted by preventing the inner side edges of the tapes from moving upwardly, by restraining the outer side edges of the tapes from inward movement toward the part, and by deflecting the intermediate portions of the tapes upwardly, causing the inner side edges of the tapes to break away from the part.

Feeder for separating parts molded to a continuous carrier tape

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Brockport, NY, United States of America

Richard Howe