Abstract: A robotically operated wire insertion apparatus for insulation displacement terminals (IDTs) automatically feeds wire to a wire insertion hand, automatically straightens the wire during the feeding so that the wire is aligned with the hand, inserts the wire progressively into a plurality of IDTs and severs the wire from the last inserted IDT, and initializes the apparatus to begin a new wiring cycle. The IDTs may have any orientation in any plane on one or more different substrates.

Abstract: A gear train is assembled by vibratory feeding each of its gears into a nest in overlapping meshed aligned spaced relation. A fastening nut is vibratory fed in alignment with the journal for the gear which is distal the bracket to which the gear train is to be secured. The bracket includes a plurality of journals each mating with the journal bearing of a corresponding gear located in the nest. A robotic arm carries the bracket and inserts the journals into the gears in an axial direction, passing the journal for the distal gear through that gear bearing and into the nut for capturing the overlapped nested gears between the nut and the bracket.

Abstract: A faceplate assembly for a display device is composed of a shadow mask assembly and a frontplate assembly both of which can be individually assembled. The shadow mask assembly is composed of a plurality of vane tips positioned between a plurality of channel shaped shadow mask sections. Tie rods pass through the tips and tip spacers to hold the members together in a single assembly. The spacers are positioned inside the tip walls to control the transverse dimension of the shadow mask assembly. The frontplate assembly includes location blocks which are affixed to the frontplate in the proximity of the corners of the frontplate. Location notches are precisely located on the frontplate and the precise positions of the location blocks with respect to the location notches recorded. A shadow mask assembly and a frontplate assembly are mated and the shadow mask assembly precisely positioned by inserting shims of the required thicknesses between the location blocks and the mask assembly.