Mechanism for feeding and inserting pins into circuit board

摘要

A mechanism for sequentially feeding pins includes a collet having a longitudinal bore for feeding pins from one end to a second end, the second end holding the pins in position. The second end of the collet has at least one longitudinal slot contained therein, providing variations in the cross sectional area of the bore when the holding end of the collet is tightened around a pin. Pins are pushed through the center bore of the collet from a bottom feed point. Pins are positioned in an indexable disc having cutouts for containing the pins and delivering the pins one-by-one to the feed end of the collet bore. The disc cutouts are sequentially indexed by a ratchet and pawl mechanism. The collet can also be used to hold a pin for insertion into a hole in a printed circuit board and fastening of the pin to the printed circuit board by rolling over a portion of the pin with a punch, the punch being positioned coaxially with the collet bore.