Appeal No. 2002-1633
Application 09/281,093
descending steps 20 each lower than its predecessor by a height
at least equal to the thickness of a chip, injectors 30, 31 for
transferring the chips from the reservoirs to the receivers to
form sample stacks of chips, a staging area 26 upstream of the
first reservoir, and a holding area 28 downstream of the last
reservoir. The injectors comprise planar tines 16 movable by
means of cylinder-piston units 11, 12, into the bottoms of the
reservoirs to engage and push the lowermost chip in each into a
waiting receiver. Subsequent to priming receivers which have
been pre-positioned on the steps adjacent respective reservoirs
(see column 4, lines 34 through 62),
[t]he apparatus is activated by the first pump of
air [to the cylinder/piston units], causing one chip
per receiver to be ejecting simultaneously into the
twelve receivers 81, 82, 83 . . . 84. FIG. 5
illustrates the status of the receivers immediately
following this first stroke. At this point, an empty
receiver 80 is introduced from staging area 26 of
platform 24 by pushing it, either manually or through
automatic operation, against receiver 81. This forces
receiver 81 to drop down a step 20 on ramp 86 into
position opposite reservoir 62, receiver 82 to drop
opposite reservoir 63 and so on. Receiver 84, now
full, is forced onto the holding area 28, from where it
may be removed for assembly elsewhere into a chip
sample loop. The stack 5 of chips thus collated in
final receiver 84 is removed, a ball link chain
inserted in the aligned apertures 3 of the chip stack
and the ends of the chain linked together in the manner
known in the art (not illustrated) [column 4, line 63,
through column 5, line 11].
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Last modified: November 3, 2007