Patent ID: 7131478

Claim:
An apparatus for supplying a component carrier in the form of a tape, said component carrier having a base tape in which a number of cavities are formed on one surface thereof for containing components and a top tape attached on said one surface of said base tape, said base tape further including a number of perforations defined therein at regular intervals wherein a certain length of said top tape is intermittently peeled off from said base tape so that one of said components is exposed at a pickup station where a pickup member reaches and picks up said exposed component, comprising: a passage along which said component carrier is transported; an electromagnetic device provided in said pickup station and adjacent to said base tape but away from said top tape; a controller for controlling said electromagnetic device in such a manner that said electromagnetic device may attract and hold said component in position inside said cavity; a rotatable wheel having a number of teeth formed around a periphery thereof for engagement with said perforations in said pickup station so as to transport said base tape through rotation of said wheel; a guide member provided adjacent to said pickup station for ensuring said engagement between said perforations and said teeth; and a support guide provided adjacent to the periphery of said wheel and in a region where a portion of said base tape is about to disengage from said teeth, said support guide being formed as a block secured to the guide member and structured to increase a length of an engaged portion formed by said perforations and said base tape.