High speed apparatus for measuring and sorting electrical components

Claim 1

IN COMBINATION, APPARATUS FOR MEASURING AND SORTING ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS EXHIBITING DIFFERENT UNIT VALUES OF A PREDETEMINED PARAMETER INTO THE APPROPRIATE ONE OF A PLURALITY OF DISCRETE CATAGORIES, EACH DEFINED BY DIFFERENT MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM PARAMETER UNIT LIMITS, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING: A MEARUSING CIRCUIR INCLUDING A VOLTAGE BALANCING A-C BRIDGE, MENS FOR ENERGIZING SAID BRIDGE, DIGITAL CONTROL MEANS FOR SELECTIVELY INSERTING AT LEAST ONE OF A PLURALITY OF PREDETERMINED INCREMENTS EACH HAVING A DIFFERENT NUMBER OF THE PARAMETER UNITS BEING MEASURED INTO ONE ARM OF SAID BRIDGE TO BALANCE OUT THE NUMBER OF PARAMETER UNITS EXHIBITED BY THE COMPONENT UNDER TEST, MEANS INCLUDED IN SAID DIGITAL CONTROL MENS FOR TRANSLATING THE MEASURED NUMBER OF PARAMETER UNITS EXHIBIT BY SAID COMPONENT UNDER TEST INTO A BINARY CODE, MEMORY MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID DIGITAL CONTROL MEANS AND RESPONSIVE TO SAID BINARY CODE, SAID MEMORY MEANS INCLUDING MEANS TO DECODE AND THEN DELAY THE SUBSEQUENT USE OF SAID DECODED INFORMATION, THE PERIOD OF SAID DELAY BEING DEPENDENT UPON THE CATEGORY DEFINED BY SAID BINARY CODE, AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID DECODED AND DELAYED INFORMATION FOR DISTRIBUTING THE COMPONENT UNDER TEST INTO A DISCRETE AREA REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CODED CATEGORY, SAID MEANS INCLUDING A CYCLICALLY ROTATED INDEXING WHEEL FOR CONVEYING THE SUCCESSIVE COMPONENTS TO BE MEASURED TO A TEST STATION, AND THEN SUCCESSIVELY CONVEYING SAID COMPONENTS TO A PLURALITY OF EJECT STATIONS EQUAL IN NUMBER TO AT LEAST THE NUMBER OF SORTING CATEGORIES EMPLOYED, EACH OF SAID EJECT STATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH ONE OF SAID DISCRETE CATEGORIES HAVING A SOLENOID-ACTUATED AIR TUBE ASSOCIATED THEREWITH AND BEING RESPONSIVE TO DIFFERENT SIGNALS FROM SAID DECODING AND STORING MEANS, EACH OF SAID AIR TUBES THEREBY EJECTING ANY PARTICULAR COMPONENT RESPECTIVELY INDEXED THERETO INTO A SORTING AREA REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PREVIOUSLY ASCERTAINED CATEGORY FOR THAT COMPONENT.