Patent attributes
A vehicle body clinch nut feeder (22) includes a dispensing head (54) having an inlet passage (60) through which oriented clinch nuts (26) are fed single file. The leading clinch nut is moved laterally to between clamping portions (64a, 66a) of a pair of clamp members (64, 66) of a clamp (62) where a second feed actuator (80) subsequently moves the clamped clinch nut downwardly to an opening (78) in a delivery member (76) where a robot end effector (32) receives the clinch nut in preparation for a clinching operation. An alignment mount (58) supports the dispensing head (54) on a support (56) for a horizontal movement in perpendicular horizontal directions to insure alignment of the robot end effector (32) with the clinch nut (26) to be received.
