Abstract: Apparatus for filling a plurality of capsules with a selected medicine, the capsules each having a closed lower end and an open top end and being mounted in the apparatus for filling the medicine into the capsules through the open top end, the apparatus comprising a dosing mechanism which separately measures a selected quantity of the medicine for input into each capsule; a capsule filling mechanism comprising a plurality of funnels each having an axis, the funnels each receiving a measured quantity of medicine and funneling the received medicine to an open delivery end of the funnels; the capsules being mounted such that the open top ends of the capsules are disposed at the open delivery ends of the funnels for receipt of the measured quantities of medicine; the filling mechanism further comprising a plurality of spiral spring mechanisms, the spiral spring mechanisms being insertable through the open top ends and removable from the capsules, the spiral spring mechanisms further being rotatable simultaneously

Abstract: An apparatus for cutting and dispensing segments of thermoplastic material into receptacles such as crowns includes a conveyor for conveying the crowns through a passageway at predetermined speeds, an extruder for extruding thermoplastic material through a discharge opening, a rotary knife having blades for cutting the extruded material into segments and depositing the segments into the receptacles as they are conveyed through the passage, and an adjustable belt drive system for rotating the blade in response to the conveying of the receptacles. The belt drive system includes a drive and driven pulley, two pairs of fixed idler pulleys, and a third pair of idler pulleys which are coupled to a laterally shiftable carrier.

Abstract: In the fabrication of multilevel integrated circuits, each metal layer is anarized by heating to momentarily melt the layer. The layer is melted by sweeping laser pulses of suitable width, typically about 1 microsecond duration, over the layer in small increments. The planarization of each metal layer eliminates irregular and discontinuous conditions between successive layers. The planarization method is particularly applicable to circuits having ground or power planes and allows for multilevel interconnects. Dielectric layers can also be planarized to produce a fully planar multilevel interconnect structure. The method is useful for the fabrication of VLSI circuits, particularly for wafer-scale integration.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are disclosed for providing a measured quantity of extrudate material to a plurality of continuously moving uniformly spaced receptacles on a rotating conveyor which can travel at varying speeds. The extrudate material is severed by a cutting means having a driving means which is intermittent in operation and is preferably driven by a stepping motor, thereby enabling the cutting means to have a cutting velocity independent of the feed rate of receptacles and to cleanly sever a slug of extrudate material for each receptacle for any speed at which the conveyor is operating.