The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 03, 1984
Filed:
Sep. 21, 1981
Iwao Ichikawa, Yokohama, JP;
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus for feeding electric circuit elements has a hopper for accommodating a supply of such elements, a capture tube or pipe extending substantially vertically through a bore in the bottom of the hopper which is movable relative to the tube in the direction of the axis of the latter so that the electric circuit elements in the hopper are captured one at a time by the tube and fed therethrough to a predetermined position at the outside of the hopper, and a separating plate disposed above the opening of the tube in the hopper for shielding the electric circuit elements under the separating plate from at least part of the weight of the electric circuit elements thereabove whereby the hopper can be provided with a large vertical dimension for accommodating a correspondingly large supply of the electric circuit elements without the danger that elements near the bottom of the hopper will be damaged by reason of the relative movement of the capture tube under the weight of the superposed circuit elements. Jamming or bridging of the electrical circuit elements above or around the opening to the capture tube is avoided by providing the bottom of the hopper with a conically concave inner surface having a plurality of protuberances thereon, and further by providing a rod extending through the bottom of the hopper and being stationary relative to the capture tube so that the hopper is also movable relative to such rod which has a resilient member extending laterally therefrom over the opening to the capture tube.