Abstract: In a capacitor chip processing apparatus, including a rotating loading wheel mounted on a spindle and carrying an inventory of chips, passageways formed in the wheel for receipt of chips from the inventory in controlled alignment, a belt containing resilient masks and having chip receiving holes brought into registration with the passageways, and motor-driven loading pins to advance, during the loading cycle, to push the chips from the passageways into the holes, a subassembly machine to detect and correct chip misalignment in the passageways, containing a load cell in communication with the loading pins and arranged to measure the resistance to pin travel as the pins come in contact with the chips in the passageways, a computer apparatus to compare the measured real time resistance to pin travel with a set resistance value from a list of absolute values or empirical studies, and a controller apparatus, activated by the computer apparatus, to control the motor-driven loading pins and the loading wheel in a re