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:
Mar. 20, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 15, 1999
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A parts feeder is provided which may be employed in feeding electronic parts such as chip components to a mounting device for mounting them on a printed circuit board, for example. The parts feeder is designed to lift up parts supplied from an inlet to a parts orientation chamber to an outlet along an inner peripheral surface of the parts orientation chamber using a magnetic mechanism. A parts orienting path is defined upstream of the outlet which allows only the parts oriented in given directions to pass therethrough. A guide member is disposed within the parts orientation chamber to guide the parts, which are unoriented in alignment with a parts transport path connecting the outlet and a parts pickup station and which are dropped from the outlet, to an inlet for facilitating transportation of the parts by the magnetic mechanism to the parts orienting path, thereby avoiding jamming of the parts in the parts orienting path.