Patent ID: 7398896
Filing Date: 2008-07-15
Classification: B23P,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A vehicle body sheet metal clinch nut feeder, comprising: a dispensing head having an inlet passage through which oriented clinch nuts to be fed are received and moved single file; a clamp mounted on the dispensing head and including a pair of clamp members having clamping portions located laterally to one side of the inlet passage; a resilient bias that resiliently biases one of the pair of clamp members toward the other in a direction parallel to the direction of clinch nut movement through the inlet passage; a first feed actuator including a feed member that is selectively operable to move the leading clinch nut in the inlet passage laterally from the inlet passage to the one lateral side of the inlet passage and between the clamping portions of the pair of clamp members for clamping therebetween by the operation of the resilient bias; a delivery member on the dispensing head below the clamp members and having an opening for receiving a robot end effector tool for receiving the clamped clinch nut at the one lateral side of the inlet passage; and a second feed actuator that is selectively operable to move the clamped clinch nut at the one lateral side of the inlet passage downwardly from between the clamping portions of the pair of clamp members for delivery to the robot end effector tool within the delivery member opening.