Abstract:
The disclosure is of a grooved drum carrying an insulating strip, to which is secured a plurality of turns of an insulated wire wound helically on the drum. Inside the drum is mounted a longitudinal shaft which carries a series of spaced-apart cutting blades, and means are provided for moving the shaft by increments longitudinally to position the cutting blades behind different groups of wires. At each position, the knife assembly is rotated and the blades cut a group of spaced-apart wires which are joined together to provide a plurality of groups of wires.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     One type of known facsimile machine uses a component known as a multi-stylus board. This board comprises an insulating sheet which carries a plurality of groups of wire-like styli formed on the sheet by a photo-etching process. In this process, a layer of metal is provided on the insulating sheet, and then it is selectively etched to provide fine, wire-like electrodes which are connected in groups so that one electrode in each group can be energized at the same time. The photo-etching process is an expensive operation, and the product produced is thus undesirably expensive. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention solves this problem by forming the desired multi-stylus board with wires and by means of relatively simple apparatus and a simple assembly procedure. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a portion of the apparatus of the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a portion of the lefthand end of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the righthand end of the apparatus of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of a cutting blade used in the invention; 
     FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the cutting edge of the blade of FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of a wire-wound drum used with the apparatus of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 6 is a sectional view along the lines 6--6 in FIG. 5; 
     FIG. 8 is a view of a portion of the invention at one stage in its operation; 
     FIG. 9 is a front elevational view of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1, illustrating its operation; 
     FIG. 10 is a front elevational view of a stylus assembly prepared by the apparatus of the invention at one stage in its preparation; 
     FIG. 11 is a front elevational view of the apparatus of FIG. 10 in its completed form and 
     FIG. 12 shows the apparatus of FIG. 11 with loose wires cut to provide the final stylus board. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The apparatus of the invention 10 includes an L-shaped bracket 20 comprising a horizontal plate 24 secured to a support table 28 and a vertical plate 30 rising vertically therefrom. Bracker 20 carries various portions of the apparatus of the invention. A horizontal drum-support shaft 40 is secured at one end, the right end in FIG. 1, to the vertical plate 30, and the other end, the left end 42, is accessible so that a wire-support drum or cylinder 48 can be threaded on this shaft and can be suitably secured in place therein by other apparatus to be described. 
     A cylindrical right-hand disk 50 is secured to the inner surface of vertical plate 30 of bracket 20 and is held in place, for example, by a disk 52 on the shaft 40. A bracket 60 is secured to the outer surface of the disk 50 above the vertical plate 30 and tilted at an angle for a purpose to be described. 
     A second horizontal shaft 70, for supporting a cutting blade assembly, is rotatably secured to the disk 50, and bracket 60 and its right end is enclosed in a housing 74. The right-hand end of shaft 70 carries a helical spring 78 which biases the shaft to the left, as seen in FIG. 1. Other biasing means might also be used. This end of the shaft 70 also carries an operating handle 80, by means of which the shaft can be rotated to operate the cutting blades. 
     The apparatus 10 also includes a cylindrical left-hand disk 90, similar to disk 50, and having a central aperture 92, by which it can be secured to the left end 42 of the drum-support shaft 40. The disk 90 also carries, on its outer surface and above the central aperture 92, a bracket 94 which is similar to bracket 60. The bracket 94 and disk 90 carry a micrometer head 98 which is positioned to be coupled to the left end of the second shaft 70. The micrometer head is used to adjust the position of the shaft 70 and cutting blade assembly and to move them to the left or right as required. The spring-biasing means biases the shaft 70 against the micrometer head. 
     The cutting blade assembly 100 comprises a plurality of cutting blades 110 mounted on the shaft and accurately spaced apart by spacers 114. The blades 110 (FIGS. 5 and 6) are each in the form of a thin plate having an aperture 116, which receives the shaft 70, and a curved cutting edge 118. The cutting edge of each blade, or at least the leading, cutting portion thereof, is notched as at 120 to receive a wire 122 to be cut. 
     The apparatus 10 also includes a shaft 130 which is secured to the inner surface of right plate 50 and extends horizontally toward left plate 90. The shaft 130 carries an insulating strip 132 having notches 134 which are equal in number to the number of groups of wires to be formed. 
     A blade stop 140 in the form of an elongated, rigid, flat plate is seated in slots 146 and 148 in the upper edges of brackets 60 and 94 and extends therebetween, for a purpose to be described. 
     Referring now to drum or cylinder 48 (FIGS. 7 and 8), the surface of this member is provided with a thread-type groove whose pitch corresponds to the desired spacing of turns of a wire which is wound thereon as described below. The drum has left and right ends 150 and 152, and the cylindrical body 154 has two elongated slots 158 and 160 for a purpose to be described. The drum 48 has a diameter substantially equal to that of the disks 50 and 90 and carries suitable internal support members, by means of which it can be threaded on and positioned on shaft 40. 
     The wires 122 to be cut are carried on drum 48 which is provided with a thread-type helical groove along its length to receive the wires and properly space them. The wires comprise turns of an insulated wire which is helically wound on the drum to provide the desired number of turns of wire, and it is secured to a rigid strip 164 secured in slot 160 in the drum. The strip 164 extends along the length of the slot 160. The individual wire turns 122 are suitably secured to the strip 164 where they cross aperture 94, and the ends of the wire (not shown) are suitably secured to the ends of the drum. The drum is threaded on shaft 40, and disk 90 is secured to shaft 42, and this holds the drum securely between the disks 50 and 90. The strip 164 may be of insulating material or of metal, as desired. In one embodiment of the invention, strip 164 is of fiberglass. 
     In operation of the invention, the drum 48, carrying the wire turns 122, is threaded on and secured in place on shaft 40 with its ends in contact with disks 50 and 90. The ends of the drum body are provided with notches 54 which engage pins 56 on end disks 50 and 90 to provide a positional control of the drum. The blade stop 140 is seated in the slots in the brackets 60 and 94, with its lower edge extending along the drum over slot 158 and close to the wires to act as a stop for the cutting blades, as will be seen below. 
     The micrometer head 98 is manipulated to move the shaft 70 and the blade assembly 100 to the rightmost position against the sprimg 78, and it is positioned so that the first or rightmost blade 110A is in cutting position behind the first or rightmost wire turn 122A. This places the other blades 110 in cutting alignment with all of the other wires which are to be cut at the same time to form a group of wires. With the cutting blades thus properly positioned to cut the first wire and the other proper wires spaced therefrom, the handle 80 is rotated to rotate shaft 70, and the blades 100 are rotated to bear against and cut or break the wire turns. The blades meet stop 140 at the end of their path of rotation as indicated by the dash lines in FIG. 8. 
     The operator pulls these cut wires 122 out and away from the surface of the drum (dash lines in FIG. 8) and brings them down and together and places them in the first notch 134A and solders the cut wire ends together to form a contact terminal 170. The other ends of these wires are secured to strip 164, as noted above. The micrometer head is then rotated to move shaft 70 and blades 110 to the left to the next cutting position, and the next group of wires are cut, grouped in the next notch 134, and soldered together. This operation is repeated until all of the wires have been cut and grouped. 
     After all of the wires have been cut and grouped, the strip 164, to which the wires are secured, is removed from the slot 160 in the drum. Referring to FIG. 11, the short wire portions 124, which extend vertically from the strip 164 to where the wires were cut, are removed and the edge 166 of the strip 164 is trued up to provide a flat level surface. The ends 123 of the individual wires 122 are available at this flat surface to operate as styli in an apparatus for electrostatically charging a sheet of paper. 
     In one type of facsimile machine, two strips 164 are employed, with the paper-charging wire ends 123 offset laterally to provide a staggered arrangement from one strip to the other.