Abstract: A system for generating a substantially-continuous stream of binary signals representative of the presence of copper on the surface of a fluorescent, substrate of a board. A beam is swept by mirror facets of a rotating mirror drum along a path on the board. When the beam strikes copper it is merely reflected. When the beam strikes the substrate, a fluorescence is produced. The resultant light is gathered by cylindrical lenses and fiber optic bundles. The color of the light is blocked by filters and the fluorescence color energizes photomultiplier tubes. A threshold setting and sensing circuit senses the output of the photomultiplier tubes and controls their bias voltage to produce a constant level of output from fluorescence and then produces a stream of binary signals that are representative of the presence/absence of copper on the surface of the board. The swept beam is split to send a portion of its energy through an optical grating.

Abstract: A system for generating a substantially-continuous stream of binary signals representative of the presence of copper on the surface of a fluorescent substrate of a board. A beam is swept by mirror facets of a rotating mirror drum along a path on the board. When the beam strikes copper it is merely relected. When the beam strikes the substrate, a fluorescence is produced. The resultant light is gathered by cylindrical lenses and fiber optic bundles. The color of the light is blocked by filters and the fluorescence color energizes photomultiplier tubes. A threshold setting and sensing circuit senses the output of the photomultiplier tubes and controls their bias voltage to produce a constant level of output from fluorescence and then produces a stream of binary signals that are representative of the presence/absence of copper on the surface of the board. The swept beam is split to send a portion of its energy through an optical grating.

Abstract: In a coil-winding machine, an apparatus for routing a wire (10) from a storage pin (12) to a terminal pin (14) of a coil bobbin (16) mounted on a coil-winding arbor (18) includes routing and tension-controlling pins (50, 52, 54) for routing the wire to either a first set of terminal pins (14) in a first row (14B) or to a second set of terminal pins (14) in a second row (14A) and around the first set of terminal pins. An apparatus for reliably breaking the wire at the terminal pins includes a freely-rotatable breaker pin (80 or 84) which deflects the wire to the breaking point. The routing and tension-controlling pin(s) also serve to decouple at least part of the breaking tension from the storage pin. A cutting apparatus (116) shortens the length of wire extending from the coil of wire wrapped around and ultimately ejected from the storage pin, so as to reduce the likelihood of tangling.

Abstract: An article of manufacture having specific utility as a multi-purpose, stackable transport tray for printed-wiring boards and accessories therefor in reusable carrier shuttles and comprising an open-work base with side portions extending upward from the base. A shelf runs the inside length of each side portion with a plurality of fin-shaped support members spaced away from the shelf by an arbitrary amount and extending inwardly from the side portion. A plurality of stiffening members extend from the base to the shelf. A plurality of ribs on the bottom surface of the base extend in a direction parallel with the sides and positioned so as to interlock and engage the support members of an underlying tray. A plurality of transverse ribs on the bottom of the base are also so positioned to engage the support members of an underlying tray.

Abstract: A fixture (60) for holding a pin-supporting shuttle (54) during assembly therein of terminal pins (20) for later insertion into a rigid board is formed with a sloping work surface (66) including a plurality of locating pins (68 and 70) for holding the shuttle (54) in two dimensions and a plurality of hold-down clips (74) for engagement with a groove (76) in the shuttle. A locking bar (72) positioned above the shuttle (54) is movable toward and away from the shuttle and carries a guide (136) for the location of assemblies (44 or 52) of terminal pins (20) in the shuttle. When the shuttle (54) has been fully loaded, the locking bar (72) is moved toward the shuttle to operate a securing mechanism (116) of the shuttle to secure the terminal pins (20) into the shuttle. A break-off groove (84) is located above a scrap chute (86) and is used for breaking pin-carrier strips (40 and 42) from the shuttle-mounted pin (20) after assembly.

Abstract: To test the soldering temperature on the upper surface of an electronic circuit ceramic substrate (16) that is conveyed on a moving belt (12) over a plurality of heater platens (10), a thermocouple (20) is yieldably pressed to the upper surface of the substrate by a pressing mechanism (22). The pressing mechanism (22) comprises two flat springs (54 and 56) that press an insulator (52) down onto the thermocouple (b 20). The flat springs (54 and 56) are in turn pressed toward the upper surface of the substrate (16) by a coil spring (62) which pushes down onto a pressure plate (60). The pre-load of the coil spring (62) is manually adjusted by a nut (64) that has a groove (66) around which the wire (24) of the thermocouple (20) is wrapped for strain relief, as the wire extends to a digital readout device (26) that rides on the belt (12) along with the substrate ( 16).

Abstract: Acoustic transponders are attached to sections of a submarine cable for use in accurately locating the cable during deployment or retrieval. An acoustic signal at one frequency, transmitted from the surface or elsewhere, stimulates one of the transponders to generate a first reply signal at a different frequency. The acoustic reply signal generated by each transponder is used to determine the location of that transponder and thus the location of its associated section of the cable. In order to measure cable tension during deployment or retrieval, a strain gauge at each transponder senses the tension of the cable at the location of its associated transponder. After each transponder transmits its first reply signal, it transmits a second reply signal delayed from the first reply signal by a time interval which is controlled by the output of its associated strain gauge.

Abstract: The definition of a photographic emulsion of the positive acting type that would normally produce a positive image is improved by normally exposing the emulsion to actinic radiation and developing the photographic emulsion, bleaching it, exposing the emulsion again to actinic radiation and redeveloping it to reverse the image that would normally result on the film.

Abstract: Two elongated gripping members (12,12) cooperate to form a closed pressure chamber about a waxed billet (61). The gripping members are reciprocated relative to an extrusion station (13), such reciprocation first moving the pressure chamber toward and past the extrusion station so as to extrude the billet through a die (66) at the extrusion station, and then returning the gripping members, in separated condition, to their initial positions to permit the immediate loading of another billet between the gripping members. Also disclosed are various additional systems, e.g.

Abstract: A system for measuring the depth of the ocean, or other body of water, from a moving vessel uses acoustical sounding from the vessel and enables improved bottom definition during high-speed vessel travel. A succession of pulses of different tone frequencies is transmitted from the vessel. The echoes produced when these tone pulses reflect from the water bottom are received at the vessel and are sorted according to frequency. This arrangement assures that the determination of the transit time of a pulse at one frequency is not confused by receipt of an echo at another frequency. The transit times of the several pulses and their echoes are measured for use in determining water depth.

Abstract: In order to avoid ribbon rollover in a high speed impact printer, a crown roller, having a crown offset from the roller's center, is used to guide the ribbon. The crown tends to center the ribbon about itself and the roller is dimensioned so that the distance from the crown to the end flange of the roller is sufficiently far that under all operating conditions the ribbon will remain separated from the flange and hence will avoid rollover. In particular the roller is positioned so that the print head will initially impact the advancing ribbon off center toward one edge of the ribbon. As printing continues, this repeated impacting will cause that edge of the ribbon to wear, the result being that the tension across the ribbon will decrease and the crown roller will constantly reposition the ribbon as if it were of an ever decreasing width.

Abstract: An armature locating and holding structure in which the armature only partially overlaps one of the magnetic poles so as to produce a magnetic tensile force on the armature tending to pull the armature toward the partially overlapped pole and a magnetic gap tending to apply a rotational balance force so as to pull the armature structure toward a pair of stops that limit movement of the armature toward the partially overlapped pole and also limits the rotation of the armature by reason of the magnetic gap.

Abstract: A conventional stepping motor has an optical disk connected to its rotor. Optically generated pulses from the disk are used to generate a signal indicating the speed of the rotor. A code converter converts the speed signals into a binary-encoded power-required signal for feedback to control the power delivered to the coils of the stepping motor so as to maintain a constant stepping speed. The encoded power-required signal is delivered to a binary comparator which delivers an output pulse of one binary sense or the other. A clock driving a counter generates a binary count having the same number of binary levels as the encoded power-required signal fed to the comparator. The output of the counter is also fed to the comparator. The comparator delivers an output of one binary sense when the clock count is less than the binary-encoded power-required signal and an output of the other binary sense when the counter output is greater than the power-required signal.

Abstract: A drive control system for a stepping motor having an optical disk sensor on the rotor shaft. A binary counter counts output pulses from a clock running much faster than the maximum speed expected from the optical disk. Optically-generated pulses, synchronized with the counted pulses, transfer the count from the counter into a storage register and reset the counter. The count achieved by the counter is inversely proportional to the velocity of the rotor shaft. More pulses and a higher count means a lower shaft speed. Therefore, the contents of the register is a coded measure of shaft speed. A code converter is used to determine the power input to the stepping motor to maintain a desired shaft speed. Therefore, the higher the motor speed and the lower the counter output between successive optically generated pulses, the less power is delivered to the stepping motor coils.

Abstract: Paper is carried on an apertured platen and is rotated past a slowly moving printing head so as to scan in a raster fashion from top to bottom and from left to right over the surface of the paper. The paper is held to the platen drum by a vacuum that is applied to the inside of the platen. A valve is located at the entrance of the vacuum system of the platen in order to rapidly dissipate the vacuum so as to release or remove the paper from the still rapidly rotating platen. To facilitate inserting and releasing paper, a shroud system is placed very close to the periphery of the drum and guides the paper during insertion to close proximity with the vacuum. An exit door is provided in the shroud at a convenient location to permit the paper to exit from the drum once the vacuum has been dissipated. The size of the drum is made such that its circumference is slightly less than the length of the paper so as to provide overlap of the top and bottom edges of the paper.

Abstract: A stepping motor is driven with extended pulses producing an effective excitation intermediate to the single phase and the dual phase operations. The unique drive circuit creates a series of drive pulses for each motor phase so that each pulse slightly overlaps the drive pulse of the next adjacent phase. Thus, since each previous phase is still providing torque while the current in the next phase is being built up, the torque characteristics are improved, and the extended pulses are terminated before the subsequent phase is energized so that excessive power consumption is avoided. In closed loop systems, a fixed duration overlap provides the improved speed-torque characteristic at high speeds where the overlap is a large percentage of the drive pulse, while at lower speeds (such as when the motor is accelerating) where power consumption is greatest, the overlap is a smaller percentage of the drive pulse hence minimizing the increase in power consumption.

Abstract: A dynamic logic system is disclosed in which a capacitor is charged by a clock signal through a gating device. The capacitor is either discharged or remains at its charged value in response to the impedance of a logic circuit. Two such systems are disclosed in which the output from the first logic system is applied as an input to the second logic system.

Abstract: A cartridge for an endless band printer ribbon includes a chamber for storing the ribbon in a convolute therewithin. One or more segments of the ribbon are maintained exteriorly of the cartridge to overlie and close the open end of a corresponding depression(s) formed in the cartridge's periphery to form a protrudent member-receiving compartment. The number of depressions corresponds to the number of protrudent ribbon guides (rollers, posts, etc.) in the printer. The protrudent member-receiving compartments are positionable so that their corresponding guides may be simultaneously received therein. After such reception, the cartridge is moved away from the guides, which thereupon engage and withdraw the ribbon from the convolute by unwinding it until the cartridge is mounted to the printer and a portion thereof is properly adjacent a printing location on a platen. The cartridge may also contain a one-way clutch to effect unidirectional ribbon movement and a ribbon re-inker.

Abstract: A read-only memory is manufactured from a matrix or array of multilayer electrical devices, each of which includes at least one metallic layer, a portion of which contacts a doped semi conductor region. The metallic layers are controllably and rapidly thinned down and decreased in cross-sectional area in the vicinity of the doped regions to form fusible links, thus producing a ROM starting product. Fusible link formation is enhanced by the use of an etchant for the metallic layer which forms an electrochemical cell in conjunction therewith and with the semiconductor and the doped region. Any metallic layers not contacting a doped region are also etched by the etchant, but at the much slower "chemical rate". Following the production of the starting product, a ROM may be produced by the selective application of voltages to selected fusible links, the I.sup.2 R heating of the links fusing them, or blowing them out. In a preferred embodiment, the electrical devices are MOSFETS.

Abstract: A circuit component having a solder connection and screw-clamp terminal connection is formed from brass, solder-coated coiled stock with a portion of the brass exposed to separate the solder connection from the area of the screw connection in order to block the molten solder from migrating into the screw connection. The screw connection is cold-formed with radially-oriented, inwardly-sloping projections or fins arranged around a central threaded opening to engage the tines of a terminal lug as it is screw-clamped in place. The radial projections or fins, by being cold-formed, are work-hardened and bite into the U-shaped tines of the terminal lug as the screw is tightened. This prevents the terminal lug from turning as the screw descends and clamps the terminal in place. The inward slope of the projections or fins cams the tines of the terminal lug towards the screw threads, thus preventing the tines from splaying outwardly.