Recent improvements of the Kloften & Kloften

Carrier Strip Splicer.

Issue No. 2. March 3, 1992

The following improvements have been made (since our first "list of improvements" of April 9, 1991 which follows enclosed):

1. Air jets used to keep the contacts cool.

By installing a solenoid valve which opens when the right jaw assembly is lowered, one or more air jets, may be directed at the contacts near the splice area, to prevent undue heating (with resulting discoloration) of the part of the contacts nearest the splice.

While the valve opens as soon as the jaw assembly is lowered (and the heating current goes on), it does not close when the current goes off, but only when the upper right jaw is again raised, thereby giving the operator the opportunity to decide how long he wants the flow of air to remain.

2. Air cylinder used to close the gap when using solder in wire form.

The "No more thickness increase" feature mentioned under point 3 in the enclosed "Issue No.1" is based on using a 10 mil (0.25 mm) solder wire instead of the standard strip.

The use of this small size wire makes it necessary to keep a certain gap between the two carrier ends at the time the wire is fed. To keep the wire in place when the two ends are brought together, we delay this movement until the two carbon brushes have come together, thereby assuring that the wire is locked between the two carrier ends and the two carbon brushes.

This feature, which recently was awarded a US patent, and for which a Patent Cooperation Treaty application now has been filed, was formerly performed manually, by the operator pushing the right hand tooling (with its carrier) to the left immediately after having closed the right hand jaw assembly.

This operation is now being performed by a small air cylinder receiving air from the same solenoid valve as in feature (1).

The use of the air cylinder assures that the same pressure is exerted each time, besides making the operation simpler.

Both of the above features may be retro-fitted to existing splicers by means of a kit containing the necessary parts and installation instructions.