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:
Apr. 23, 1985
Filed:
Oct. 22, 1982
George D Rehklau, Los Altos, CA (US);
Lee A Cotterill, San Jose, CA (US);
Robert Z Langevin, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Electro-Sound, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A multistation cassette loading apparatus 10 loads a predetermined amount of blank or pre-recorded magnetic tape into cassettes 12. Cassettes to be loaded are oriented and positioned on a conveyor 16 by an automatic feed mechanism 14. A loading mechanism 18 transfers each cassette to the first station of a four station turntable 20. At the first station, the leader tape 320 of the cassette is extracted. At the second station, the leader is oriented in a splice block 24 and is held in place by vacuum. The leader tape is cut into two sections of equal length by a cutter 34. At the third station, one section of the leader tape is spliced to the end of a reel of supply tape 38 by a splicer 40. A measured amount of supply tape is wound into the cassette at a constant tension. A cushion of air blown around the reel of tape in the cassette during winding reduces frictional heating from tape drag. After the measured amount of tape is loaded into the cassette, the supply tape is cut by another cutter 46. At the fourth station, the cut end of the supply tape is spliced to the other section of the leader tape by splicer 48. After the excess tape is wound into the cassette, it is unloaded from the turntable.