The document provides details on several major projects and machines designed by James Oberle, including: 1) MPI automated coining and inspection machines with multiple dies, conveyors, and vision inspection systems. 2) Bradley weld fixture for welding frames and Bemis spring clip job with vibratory feed and servo slide. 3) SAKS 6.1 and 6.2 vision inspection testers for automotive clusters with custom slides, cameras, lighting and indexing stations. 4) Additional projects involving film laminators, presses, ultrasonic welders, testers, shear machines, bonders, checkers and more.

1. James W. Oberle 5679 State Road 175 Hartford, Wi 53027
 Cell 262-224-6071
 E-mail:Jim.Oberle@hotmail.com
Addendum: major projects, skills, applied processes
These are the bigger projects where I was chief designer.
MPI automated coining and inspection machines
The MPI coining machine was started when I came aboard. My major focus was the design of the die and the press station. There
are 3 different dies with cam actuated punches.
Has four walking beams or lines per machine
Conveyor supplied infeed
Pick and place into vision inspection nest
Reject or beam feed invert on the index
Servo radial orient
Coin projections tox cylinder
Projection height check
Vision inspect defects
Invert
Inspect
Reject
Pick and place to exit conveyor
Bradley weld fixture
Free standing fixture for TIG welding frames has chill block and clamps at corners. Unique design allows one
handle to move fixture in or out in the y-axis and another to manipulate x-axis. Squares up frames to 24 x 36 and
swivels 360 degrees
Bemis spring clip job
Vibratory feed of spring clip to escapement. Part shuttled to a 4 up nest resting on a servo slide. Nest presented to
robot.
SAKS 6.1 vision inspection testers
These are vision inspection machines for inspecting printing defects in automotive instrument clusters. They consist
of a custom ball screw slide with tooling to locate the part that passes them under a camera with special provisions
for lighting and camera adjustment. They are inspected at two locations one of which backlights the product for
inspection.
Saks 6.2 Automated Vision Inspection Tester

2. Has a four-station indexer with a magazine at each location to hold clusters
Station 1 loads a part to an eight-station indexer from the magazine.
Station 2 locates the nest three cameras take an image of the product with special lighting.
Station 3 similar but has backlight testing done.
Station 4 has an automatic labeler on a servo slide that puts a dot in the region of concern
Station 5 unloads a reject part
Station 6 has an automatic labeler on an adjustable slide to apply a mask to a window that must be protected on the
part
Station 7 unloads inspected parts
Station 8 open
Custom process
This is a reel to reel film laminator that feeds sheets into pinch rolls from a driven infeed. A coating from a previous
operation was applied to a film, feed into the web, laminated, ultraviolet light cured and stripped from the web. The
design included included fast changeover roll handling and eddy current tension control systems.
Siemens Presses
Operator loaded workstations high-pressure boost
Chrysler Ultrasonic Welder for automotive cam and crank Hall effect sensors
Transfer 8-station dial
Rate 12 pieces/minute.
Station 1: Magazine of parts in tubes, escapes tube, then parts inside to a conveyer, rotates the part to the proper
position. Pick and place head loads the part to the dial.
Station 2: Inspects the part with a vision system to be sure the listing is correct for the order.
Station 3: Holds an inventory of lead-frames. One is escaped ,the dial nest is opened, and the part is loaded above
the can in the indexer nest
Station 4: Open.
Station 5: Vibratory feeder to orient single leads as required for the other listing. Three leads are escaped at once
pick and place loaded into dial.
Station 6 Aligns the parts in the nest and ultrasonic welds them.
Station 7 Unload - Two position pick and place walking beam. A double-tooled pick and place head removes a part
from the nest and from the die at the same time.
Off line tie bar shear. Custom press and tool - check station verifies the leads are in place and the tie bars are
removed.
Pallet load: An Adept robot places the part from the check station to a pallet. The pallet accumulates about 20 parts

3. Pallet transfer to stacker. The stacker has about 8 slots for pallets and gives a run time of around 20 minutes.
Station 8 Open
Chrysler 2.0 / 2.4 Cam and crankshaft hall effect Characteristics Tester
An inventory system consists of dual conveyors to feed trays, which hold parts to be tested. The tray containing
products is stopped and the parts are escaped from overhead into an accumulating conveyor. The empty tray is
released and another takes its place. The parts in the accumulating conveyor hit a dead track.
Transfer system A pick and place unit with three grip heads takes the part to the first station that checks the
electrical connector for short shots.
The next station checks the electrical connector to insure the leads are at the correct length and not bent.
The next station performs a precision mechanical and electrical characteristics check with a spinning target.
The pick and place unit services all these heads.
A servo pick and place slide then takes the parts from the test head and places them in a dual nest station where they
are impact marked. The parts are then rejected or placed in a good parts bin by the servo pick and place slide.
GM 4.3 Crankshaft position Assembly and Characteristics Test Machine
This machine assembles and tests the GM 4.3 crankshaft sensor.
The operator hand loads housings into a 16-station dial.
A mounting bracket is automatically feed and loaded into the housing while it is in the dial.
The bracket is crimped in place.
The bracket crimp is verified using feed back from digital indicators.
The Hall effect crankshaft sensor is tested for capacitor timeout. Kelvin contact must be made at this station with
retractable terminals.
An o-ring is automatically feed and inserted on the product.
The product has full characteristics check performed using Kelvin contacts, a spinning target, and a variable air gap
closed loop servo system.
The product is date coded using an impact brander.
An Adept robot removes the part from the dial and places them into a custom pallet.
The pallets are resting on a complete power and free “race track” system to provide output to the system for reduced
operator intervention.
Deka Shear and Test Machine
This machine is placed next to a molding press. During the mold cycle the operator loads a four up part into the
tester.
The machine degates the parts.

4. We make electrical contact to the product, present a magnet to each sensor to actuate the Hall effect over molded
sensor
Shear the gates
Release the product and automatically sort rejects. Good parts are directed down channels to holding bins.
Vacuum Bonder
This is a building block component for pressure and vacuum sensors.
Hand load glass tube open on one end and a bonded circuit board is on the other.
Open end is pulled down to 5 millitor
Four hydrogen flames driven by a servo melts the glass above the open end and seals the vacuum in the product
Flames retract and operator unloads
Mercury Super Checker
This machine is a 12-station hand loaded tester for mercury vials the building block for Honeywell thermostats.
This machine has Kelvin contacts for each nest and employs a stepper motor to rotate the nest platform to test
various electrical characteristics. Nest must tilt to each side and back and forth
Epoxy Dispense Robot
BZ switches are loaded into an accumulating conveyor
An Adept Scara robot places them in front of the epoxy dispense system
A continuous bead of epoxy is filled between the case and cover.
The robot places them into one of four trays resting on a Camco indexer
Manual unload of pallets.
Ford throttle position Laser Trim and Test machine
Parts were loaded by hand into a nest driven by a servo slide.
The part was positioned underneath a drive tang. The slide was lifted to insert the tang into the actuator. A
servomotor rotated the tang precisely. A contact block made contact with the part leads while using a torsion load
cell and a closed loop servo system equipped with a rotary 36000 line encoder to check angular displacement we
trimmed the resisters to have a linear output over a 5 volt range.
Other stations included an automatic branding head,
Cognex through laser lens vision system
Auto eject reject
Termination Machine Bz snap action assembly line
Takes parts from previous module and placed them on a long conveyer. This was a custom designed conveyor,
about ten feet long, that had escapements built into it which lifted the parts off of the belts

5. This machine had five Dixon feeder bowls fed fully automatic screwdrivers. Three were used for one product
configuration and two were used for a different product.
Three heads had cupped washers that were bowl fed and inserted underneath the fasteners.
The last station then inverted the switch and placed it on another module.
Case Loader for BZ snap action assembly line
The operator fills from trays an inventory of housings into a magazine. They are escaped, blown clean and de-
ionized, checked for proper tenon height and presented to the line for further work.
Bottom Contact Staker for snap action assembly line
This machine employees a custom conveyer with automatically positioned anvils inside it. It is a power and free
machine that escapes housings, lifts them off the belts, backs up the anvils, holds the contact at the correct
orientation and uses a Bracker orbital riveter to secure the contact. The product is released downstream to further
modules.
Final Seat and Balancing Station for snap action assembly line
This machine employees a custom conveyer with automatically positioned anvils inside it. It is a power and free
machine that escapes housings, lifts them off the belts, backs up the anvils, aligns the movable contact with respect
to the other contacts, rivets it, and latches the movable contact. The product is released downstream to further
modules.
PL Assembly Machine
This machine assembles from start to finish our PL style electrical snap action mechanical switch.
This is a dial machine, fully automatic, that feeds housings, top and bottom contacts, movable contact springs, and
covers. The product has three internal contact members that must be fed, loaded, aligned and riveted in place. The
leaf spring movable contact is aligned, latched and riveted in place.A simple electrical check is done.
Delta Phi Tester
This is a precision-testing machine used to test full characteristics of Hall effect first and second level camshaft
position gear tooth sensor. (Two different nests and products.) A servo driven target is precisely located to the
tooling that locates the products. Electrical contact is made to the products and data is taken by the computer to
determine pass/fail status. Operator load / unload.
Dual Checkers
This machine was the first of its kind to interface with the last the last assembly machine that automatically
assembles V3 - V7 snap action switches. This was an inline style machine with unique walking beam at a 45-degree
angle. The machine is cam controlled, except for the full characteristics head which was similar to the hand loaded
force travel checker, and employed several barrel cam Stelron units all mechanically timed and overload protected.
Four were produced at the same time. Stations: load from previous machine, actuate switches to seat components,
rough check head, reject, full characteristics check, reject, unload. Rate 45/min
Full Characteristics Checker
This is a dual nest hand loaded force travel tracker that inspects V3 and V7 mechanical snap action switches.
Employs a closed loop servo system with load cell to insure specifications are met.

6. Skills
Proficient at running milling machines, surface grinders, lathes, welders and most shop equipment. Owned an
operated a part time machine shop for 10 years. The only machine tool I have now is a 3-axis CNC mill.
1977 to 1981 While a student at ISU during summer months
Job shop welder at Jerry’s welding Pekin, IL. Processes used: MIG, TIG, SMAW
Kress Corporation Brimfield, IL., set-up man and welder for coal haulers. Processes used: Dual shield MIG, Flux
core MIG.
Wel-arco Pekin, IL. Set-up and welding of tailgate assemblies. Process used: Innershild MIG.
While in high school
Illinois Licensed Farrier. Passed state boards at age 17 in 1976. The licensed Farrier must be able to hand forge
shoes and forge weld on site. He must be able to understand faults of gait, and know the anatomy of the horse from
the knee down. He must be able to answer questions from the seven-member board on how to make corrections of
gate. You must be able to shoe racehorses and show horses. You must make the shoe onsite at the Spring field State
fairgrounds shoe a hoof and pass the boards examination in the required time frame. I have shod horses part time
since then.
Applied processes:
Air over oil hydraulics
Ultrasonic welding metals
Resistance welding ferrous and non-ferrous
Impact marking
Laser jet marking
Laser resister trimming
Precision measuring force, distance
O-ring insertion
Leak detection
Soft beam soldering
Flame soldering,
Solder reflow
Hi-vacuum test systems
Epoxy dispense systems
Orbital riveting,
Compression riveting
Wire bonding
Vision inspection systems
Automatic screw-driving
Drilling and tapping operations
Progressive dies
Secondary form dies
Crimping
Glass sealing
De-ionizing
Film laminating
Screen-printing
Ultraviolet ink curing
Machining