Method and apparatus for forming and unloading a completed stack of
articles. An assembly station includes a rotatable turret from which at
least one stacker arm projects. The turret rotates to each of a number of
article loading positions to sequentially load articles onto the arm in a
desired order. The turret is then advanced to allow the articles to be
concurrently unloaded from the stacker arm at an unloading position. In
an automated disc drive manufacturing environment, the articles comprise
respective numbers of magnetic recording discs and intervening disc
spacers which are arranged into a disc/spacer stack as the stacker arm is
advanced to a number of disc feeder and spacer feeder stations. The
completed disc/spacer stack is then unloaded onto a spindle motor hub.
Additional arms preferably project from the turret so that, as the turret
rotates, multiple stacks are simultaneously formed and sequentially
unloaded.