A linear multiple feeder for use with machines for automatically positioning surface-mounted devices (SMDs) collected from a tape wound on a reel. The tape has a protective
film coating removably attached thereto, and detachable therefrom for enabling the device to be picked-up. The feeder comprises a support structure, a plurality of reels of tape carrying the device revolvingly mounted to the structure, motor-driven wheels for retrieving the protective film being detached from the tape to
expose those components that are ready for collection, a plurality of relatively parallel lanes on the support structure, downstream from the film-retrieving wheels. Also provided is a device for forward linear delivery of the tape along the lanes. The delivery device includes a
carriage moving alternately between two stops and carrying a row of tape-entraining pins selectively engageable with holes in the tape and inside the lanes so as to induce forward motion of only those tapes selected. The lanes are provided with respective elements for separating the
film coating entrained axially by the film-retrieving wheels in a direction opposite to that of forward feed delivery of the corresponding tape, thereby detaching the
film coating from the tape as the latter moves forward by forcing it against the separator elements. The tension induced in the film
coating by the film-retrieving wheels biases the separators against the bottom of their respective lanes so as to prevent movement of any tape(s) that have not been selected by blocking them between the separators and the bottom of the lanes.