Patent · US Expired

Apparatus for orientating elongate bodies

US4623293A · kind A · utility

8Cited by
10References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 8, 1985
Grant dateNov 18, 1986
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 8, 2005

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
  • CPC primaryB65G59/062
  • WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Apparatus for orienting elongate bodies, for example electrical connectors, comprises magazines for containing vertical stacks of the elongate bodies, escapement slides for releasing one body at a time from each magazine, as required, first and second slidable traps mounted beneath the escapement slides and having an advanced, body supporting position and a retracted body release position, and guide surfaces on the escapement slides for guiding each body as it falls from a magazine, so that it lies across both of the traps when they are in their body supporting position. A pair of receptacles are slidably mounted on a carriage beneath the traps so that either of these receptacles can be positioned to receive a body released by the traps. If one trap is first retracted, the body will fall into the receptacle in one vertical orientation and if the other trap is first retracted, the body will fall into the receptacle in the opposite vertical orientation. The bodies may be stacked in the magazines so that in one of them the bodies are in one endwise orientation and in the other the bodies are in the opposite endwise orientation.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.