Improvements in or relating to machines adapted for use in operating upon electricalcomponents

852,328. Straightening electrical leads. BRITISH UNITED, SHOE MACHINERY CO. Ltd. July 24, 1957 [July 25, 1956; July 23, 1957], Nos. 22941/56 and 23234/57. Class 83(4). [Also in Group XVII] The leads of coaxiallead electrical components are straightened by being rolled between relatively - moving cooperating surfaces. A gear 68 mounted on a platform 62, Fig. 1, is continuously driven from a motor 72 by a chain and sprocket and meshes with a gear 67 on a shaft 66 to which are keyed two flanged bushes 74 carrying discs 76, Fig. 4. Each disc has eight evenly - spaced radial slots 78 and mounted between the discs is a wooden spacer. This assembly forms a component - feeding wheel. On each bush 74 is a rotary inner leadstraightening member 82 provided with four arcuate peripheral surfaces 84, Fig. 6, which may be serrated or roughened if desired and which taper from a broad end 86 to a narrow end 85 which extends as a parallel-sided portion 87. Each member 82 is driven at twice the speed of the discs 76 from a gear 67 (or from a similar gear at the other end of the shaft 66) through gears 92, 94 and a gear 96 secured to the member. Concave outer lead - straightening members 106 with surfaces complementary in shape to the surfaces 84 and having narrow parallel-sided insert portions 107, are pivotally mounted on the platform and are urged towards the members 82 by springs 110 but do not quite touch them. In operation, surfaces 84 move past the surfaces of the members 106, the narrow ends meeting just as a slot 78 in the feeding discs 76 lies in the same radial plane so that the leads are subjected to a spinning and straightening action from the component body outwards. If the leads are waxed it is desirable to warm the members 82 and 106. As the leads move between the narrow extensions of the members 82, 106, the components are given an initial spin by engagement with a resilientlymounted arcuate rubber-faced friction-pad 136. Components are fed to the disc assembly 76 by a feed-wheel 150 into the slotted peripheral discs of which the components are placed. The wheel is frictionally driven by a spring belt 152 from the shaft 66 and, if necessary, its rotation is arrested until a slot 78 is positioned to receive the leads of a component, the transfer being assisted by a brush 149. When the components leave the disc assembly 76 they pass by way of a slotted extension 212 into a helical raceway R, described in Specification 850,689, and thence to another feed-wheel a