Abstract: A machine for fabricating ornamental bows feeds slit sheet material from a roll, and cuts trapezoidal or truncated-triangle portions from the roll. The cut sheets are translated by a rotatable transfer head to a roll-up station, where a folding apparatus or harp receives the sheets. The folding harp has smaller dimensions than the separated sheets, so there is an overlap. The harp folds, to juxtapose border portions of the sheets. A hold-down bar presses the protruding borders onto a row of needles on the upper surface of a roll-up bar. An element guard bar is lowered, to press loops of the bow onto a front surface of the roll-up bar. A collet is introduced and grasps the sheets, and is raised and rotated to roll up one edge of the sheets against the upper surface of the roll-up bar. When rolling is finished, fingers grasp the hub of the bow, and the collet is retracted. The fingers carry the bow to a glue operation for finishing.

Abstract: A flip chip is soldered to an array of flexible pillars of compliant dielectric material on a circuit board. Each pillar has an electrically conductive core electrically coupled to the circuit board. The pillars absorb movement due to differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion of the chip and board, and hence reduce the possibility of fatigue failure of the solder joint. The pillars are manufactured by forming a layer of compliant dielectric material on the circuit board, forming blind holes in the layer, filling the holes with electrically conductive material overlapping the edges of the holes, and then laser ablating to remove the compliant dielectric material except where protected by the electrically conductive material.