Abstract: Improved apparatus for carrying encapsulated electronic components, having a conveyor belt defined by a horizontal web with a pluraity of identical, flexible tines depending from both sides of the edge of the web. The web is formed into a continuous, endless loop adapted to be carried on a pair of vertical pulleys rotatable on horizontal shafts. Projecting cams, on the face of the web of the belt remote from the dependent tines, engage mating indentations in the periphery of the two pulleys guiding and imparting movement to the belt. The opposing groups of tines are urged apart, by spreader cams, at the beginning and end of the passage of the belt between the lower faces of the two pulleys. Parts to be plated are brought into the space between the tines which, upon exiting from the cams as the conveyor moves entrap the part between them and causing them to move through the plating tanks and treatment stations positioned along the path of the conveyor.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
December 19, 1988
Date of Patent:
March 6, 1990
Assignee:
Future Automation, Inc.
Inventors:
Daniel J. Gramarossa, Frank J. Johnson, Heinz Wo W. Schlenker