Abstract: An improved transport belt is provided for gripping and carrying parts such as thin and fragile electronic components through production processes including, for example, electroplating steps and the like. The transport belt comprises an elongated upright web carrying a succession of depending gripper units, each including first and second fingers for gripping and carrying the production parts. The first finger is formed generally coplanar with the belt web, whereas the second finger has a generally U-shaped configuration with depending legs on the leading and trailing sides, respectively, of the first finger. The legs are deformed laterally from the plane of the belt web and interconnected at their lower ends by a cross bar which is urged by the legs into spring-loaded contact with the lower end or tip of the first finger.

Abstract: An improved electrolytic reactor is provided with a sealed enclosure subdivided into separate solution chambers for an anolyte and for a catholyte by the interposition of an electrically insulating septum with a microporous matrix. The microporous membrane, or septum, permits the controlled passage of ionic species but prevents the gross intermixing of the separate electrolytes in respective contact with the cathode and the anode of the reactor. At least one of the chambers defined on either face of the microporous septum is filled with electrically conductive particulate material--stainless steel balls in one embodiment--acting as extensions of the electrode in that chamber, so as to increase the electrically charged, stable surface available for electrolytic mass transfer.

Abstract: An improved apparatus for the plating of the contact elements of encapsulated electronic components - suitably of the type known as P-Dip strips - is provided with a continuous flexible parts-carrier belt of stainless steel, running in a horizontally aligned loop, with the web of the belt vertical. In the lower edge of the belt an array of flexible gripping fingers is formed, provided with projections, suitable for engagement by laterally disposed cams, on alternating sides of the belt for successive grip fingers. A loading device, co-ordinated with the operation of the cams, presents a part to be plated into the gripping fingers during an interval when the belt is stationary and the cams have been activated to separate the tips of the grip fingers. Upon retraction of the cams the parts are securely held by the grip fingers and moved through the plating stations upon the activation of belt motion. After plating, the parts are released by cam action on the grip fingers.

Abstract: An improved apparatus for the plating of the projecting, bent contact elements of electronic components encapsulated in ceramic packages--suitably of the type known as C-Dips--is provided with a continuous flexible conveyor belt of stainless steel running in a vertically aligned loop with a web of the belt horizontal. The edges of the belt are bevelled to receive, pressed thereover, a gap between the ceramic package and the selvedge associated with the untrimmed lead frame of the contact elements in a frictional, reversible grip. The parts to be plated are forced onto the edge of the intermittently moving belt during its period of rest, and are carried through the treatment stations of the plating apparatus as the belt progresses from a loading station towards an unload station, after the parts have been plated, where the individual encapsulated electronic components are stripped from the belt into receiving trays or magazines.

Abstract: An inflation device adapted to admit compressed gas to the interior of a balloon, and to seal that interior against the atmosphere after inflation, is comprised of a pair of circular disks in parallel alignment and spaced from each other. The disks are rigidly affixed to a central shank which extends beyond one of them. The shank extension is bored with a passage, sealed at the far end thereof, in communication with the annular space between the disks by means of a radial orifice. The tubular neck of the balloon is stretched over the sealing disks, with the shank extension protruding from the opening of the balloon sheath. Upon pressurizing the passage in the shank with air, or other inflating medium, that portion of the balloon stretched between the two disks distends and permits the inflating medium to enter the internal volume of the gasbag around the periphery of the inner disk.

Abstract: A bi-directional fluid flow control valve is provided with a spool-like valve body with a circumferential relief in its periphery bounded by a seal disk and by a reduced-diameter portion of the valve body, with a substantially tubular, elastic membrane stretched over the aforementioned portion and the seal disk, spanning the relieved portion. A flow channel penetrates the valve body centrally from the end closest to the reduced-diameter portion, and communicates with said relief via radial passages. Pressure differentials in either sense across the tubular membrane distort the membrane in such a manner that a flow passage is opened across the valve. When the pressure in the relieved groove is greater than on the outside of the membrane, the latter lifts from the seal disk. When the external pressure is greater, the membrane collapses into the relief groove, allowing flow through channels milled in the inner face of the seal disk.

Abstract: A inflation device adapted to admit compressed gas to the interior of a balloon, and to seal that interior against the atmosphere after inflation, is comprised of a pair of circular disks in parallel alignment and in spaced relationship with respect to one another. The disks are rigidly affixed to a central shank which extends beyond one of the disks. The shank extension is bored with a passage, sealed at the far end thereof, which communicates with the annular space between the disks, by means of a radial orifice. The tubular neck of the balloon is stretched over the sealing disks, with the shank extension protruding from the opening in the balloon sheath. Upon pressurizing the passage in the shank with air or other inflating medium, that portion of the balloon stretched between the two disks distends, and permits the medium to enter the internal volume of the gas bag around the periphery of the inner disk.