The Boeing Company

Boeing Aerospace Co.

Wesley C Lund

David F Feider

Kurt F Hanke

Dan E Pedersen

A vacuum pickup tool (10) having a handle (16) and a barrel (22) mounted thereto with a tip (24) that is heated by a temperature control unit (114). The barrel (22) and tip (24) include a longitudinal axial bore (41) attached to an air source through connector (116) to provide vacuum through an axial opening (62) and the tip (24) to hold a Z-clip (74) to the barrel (22). Actuation of a trigger (28) deactivates the vacuum and simultaneously heats the tip (24) to solder the clip (74) onto a wire wrapped pin (64) inserted through a circuit board (66). A thermocouple (54) and controller 114 monitor and control the temperature of the tip (24) as preset by the temperature control (114) on an instrument assembly (96).

Vacuum pickup tool with integrally heated soldering tip

A milling cutter tool for cleanly and smoothly cutting honeycomb core material is disclosed. The cutter tool includes a circular saw blade sharpened to a knife edge. A bevel extends from the upper surface towards the sharp peripheral edge. A plurality of cutter bodies extend vertically above the circular saw blade. The cutter bodies include a plurality of teeth generally parallel to each other and extending vertically with respect to each other. The teeth include a piercing point and sharp cutting edges extending at a clearance angle from the piercing point. A flat surface extends between the teeth. The circular saw blade having a sharp bevel cutting edge provides a clean cut of the honeycomb core material at the surface to be cut. The sharp points of the cutting edges pierce the honeycomb material, dig into it and slice it. The cutting edges further slice and cut the dross honeycomb core material as it is separated from the surface being cut. A clean, smooth surface is left to which a panel may be bonded.

Milling cutter for honeycomb core material

The depth control assembly for attachment at one end to a machine tool and at the other end to a drill plate of a jig having selected guide holes positioned over points to be drilled in a production part. The depth control assembly is a spring-loaded adaptor which spaces the drill a constant distance from the production part, regardless of differences in distance between the face of the drill plate and the production part. Through the use of the depth control assembly, an operator can drill holes of a constant depth in the production part without taking separate measurements and making new depth adjustments at each hole location.

Depth control assembly

Apparatus, especially portable apparatus, for forming shaped edge profiles on the edges of sheet material wherein the sheet material is characterized by thickness non-uniformities; yet, wherein the root face thickness--i.e., that portion of the shaped sheet edge thickness from which no material is removed--of the shaped edge formed is maintained constant irrespective of thickness non-uniformities inherently present in such sheets. More specifically, apparatus which particularly, but not exclusively, advantageous in preparing the edges of sheet material (such, for example, as sheet aluminum) for subsequent welding operations by routing or the like, where it is critical that the root face thickness of the shaped edge remain of constant thickness irrespective of thickness variations inherently present in the sheet material itself. In one of its principal aspects, the invention relates to portable routers which permit even unskilled operators to easily and quickly form shaped edges on sheets of material on a consistently reproducible basis, yet wherein the shaped edges thus formed are characterized by a continuously presented constant root face thickness which does not vary irrespective of changes in the thickness from point-to-point on a given sheet or thickness changes from sheet-to-sheet.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Wesley C Lund