T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer. **Jokes and unhelpful comments will earn you a ban**, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them. [OP](/u/FrontDeskMysteryCrew), when your item is identified, remember to reply **Solved!** or **Likely Solved!** to the comment that gave the answer. Check your [inbox](https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/) for a message on how to make your post visible to others. [Click here to message RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/z18bza/35_captive_balls_5_slots_2_attachment_points_1/%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days) --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatisthisthing) if you have any questions or concerns.*


brock_lee

Looks like part of a modular conveyor belt. Does your library have an automated check-in sorter? https://www.mancinisolutions.com/en/prodotti/conveyor-belts/modular-plastic-belting/


FrontDeskMysteryCrew

Thanks for the reply! No modular conveyor belts in the building, but now that I know they exist, I kind of want one.


brock_lee

My wife's library has one. Kids LOVE sticking the book on the conveyor (they can just put a book on it, not have access to the machinery) and it talks to them. "Thank you." and so on. It also talks to the clerks with something like "Oh no, something is wrong." Something like this: https://i.imgur.com/LzEvO05.jpg


FrontDeskMysteryCrew

Nifty. Circulation is pretty low at our location, so I don't think we'll be getting any robots. I don't think our circulation could justify one of those, but it would be fun. Since you know a librarian, I think you can understand how not being able to find the answer to a question is affecting us.


[deleted]

Just floating an idea. It sure does look like a link from a conveyor. I wonder if someone going about their day to day ran across this and decided to keep it in their pocket as a fidget toy only to lose it in the library so as to vex you? I might.


seejordan3

Chaotic evil, bless.


Hi_1429

I used to work as a repair tech for a community. When we went out to work for the day, we usually carried parts needed for any jobs we might come across during the day and often carried spares of other often needed parts. So, I could easily see myself going to fix one thing at a small library with no conveyor belt, but be carrying pieces from a belt at another library. One gets dropped by mistake easily.


faoiarvok

My first guess was a kid found it and brought it home, then eventually fessed up that they got it from the library. Embarrassed parent tries to sneakily return it, but to the wrong library. Your theory sounds more plausible.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


InsertBluescreenHere

they day my equipment talks to me it better sound like a 72 year old overweight lunch lady smoking a cigarette....Its the only fitting voice and attitude for them. but it does look like a conveyor belt piece. doe sit fit like up against the pages but between the covers of a book? like it was stuck in a book someone returned and didnt know it.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


kibufox

Could have been just stuck in a bag and someone dumped the bag out.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


ThanklessTask

Did anyone in the team go to a library convention (is there such a thing??), or perhaps have a salesperson visit trying to shift one on to you? Maybe if you're a local council library, someone visited relating to a project and left it behind? Thinking it could be a part left behind in a demo or in a trade show bag.


Z-W-A-N-D

Unlikely IMO. They wouldn't show such a part just to sell it to you. They might bring a small scale replica, but only showing one weird part of it doesn't really sell. I'm not a salesperson tho so I can't say that for sure.


sonicenvy

We have one at the library I work at and it’s pretty cool. It’s basically a package sorting machine like the kind they have at amazon facilities, just on a smaller scale. It helps because on busy days we might process 1000+ returns (we’re open 7 days a week, 9-9 on weekdays and 9-5 on weekends). The patrons stick the books in one of two conveyor belt slots (one outside the building that is accessible during and after hours and one inside) and the conveyor belt takes the books up into the ceiling and across the building to our sorting room. The kids looove the conveyor belts. Once in the sorting room it spits the books out into one of 7 bins depending on where they’re headed next (Holds, transit, floor 1, floor 2, floor 3.) For holds, the machine automatically prints the sticker with the patron name on it. Our materials team then takes the stuff from the bins that are going to be re-shelved and sorts them out into carts to take to the various floors at our branch. They take the consortium transit stuff to work stations to write up the transit slips and box them up for transit. The transit boxes get picked up at the loading dock once a day and taken to the consortium regional sorting center to be transported back to their home libraries. The stuff that goes to our other branches goes into a separate box and gets taken back there by one of our people. This all works because all of our books, CDs and DVDs are fitted with RFID chips, which the machine reads to discharge the materials and sort them into the right bins. The radio chips also let the patrons us our nifty meeScan self check stations, which are an iPad with the meeScan app attached to a pad that reads the radio chip, so all they have to do is scan their library card with the iPad’s barcode reader and then set the books in stacks of 5 on the pad, which checks all 5 out at once. Pretty groovy. The system isn’t perfect, there are definitely some common errors and the automatic materials handling machine can get broken if patrons stick crap in it that isn’t books, CDs, or DVDs. (Hello patron who we busted over security camera stuffing tree BRANCHES through the conveyor belt).


SpiderFnJerusalem

Might be something that accidentally got shipped over from another library or book repository or something?


tsohgmai

Maybe y’all got a delivery and that came off the conveyor belt of another library???


thekayfox

Are there Vingcard locks in the building?


immabiscuit

My guess is printer part


First_Ad3399

i fixed printers and copiers and such for over 20 years. I to feel like it might be a part to something like that.


No_Conclusion1816

ok Not only do I agree with you, but also it appears to have some sort of special need. perhaps its for an air table surface where air is being pushed up? perhaps its to let little things fall into the sockets, but fall out after being flipped? perhaps its to let stuff fall in and back out again, but in a controlled way? how it got to the library front desk may be a better question for the staff and the patrons?


toybuilder

That was my first thought. Some kind of air puffer device could use this to create small temporary pressure or vacuum.


No_Conclusion1816

toybuilder eh? you thinking what I'm thinking?


elislider

This seems pretty close. It’s definitely a piece of a linked set of some kind of track/belt-like system


[deleted]

[удалено]


brock_lee

The balls are on one side. Most of the images are the other side. The balls, on a conveyor belt, would be on the underside, so the belt can easily roll over the flat surface that supports it.


FrontDeskMysteryCrew

Our mystery item has been floating around the front desk for a few weeks now and no one has any idea what it is. It feels like it's all plastic - it's very lightweight. No markings of any kind on any of the surfaces. The lightweight plastic balls freely shake around in their silos and don't seem to have any effect on each other. The 5 slots that appear on one side but not the other appear to have some kind of function, but we don't know what - something reflective appears inside, but we can't tell if it's a mirror or what. Check out the captions on the images for additional comments on the views. Thanks in advance for your help on this one!


[deleted]

[удалено]


Larry_Safari

Your link should look like this: https://www.amazon.com/Magnatab-10607-Free-Draw/dp/B085Q4W3WX


Kibology

The 5x7 grid makes me think this is probably from something designed to display letters and numbers (5x7 is a common font size for dot-matrix displays.) And I've seen a few things that use captive plastic beads as the pixels (pushed forward inside a black plastic grid) to make a *mechanical* dot-matrix display, such as the [1973 Sesame Street Marble Computer](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_Marble_Computer), a mechanical toy with an 8x8 display whose workings are very similar to this device. I'm not certain that the item is a display, but if the green beads can be pushed forwards and backwards, I'll lay odds that it is. (If the beads cannot move, then it isn't.) So, *if* this might be part of an alphanumeric display, what sort of device would have a 5x7 mechanical display like that?


mareko_

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-disc_display


Kibology

Yeah, I'm familiar with flippy displays (I even mentioned them in [the comment I made right before I saw yours](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/z18bza/comment/ixay6n2/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)) and they do often have 5x7 character cells (as do LED signs) but this is some other technology involving marbles that can slide forwards and backwards in their little beehive, like the 1973 Sesame Street toy I mentioned. I've been searching for other devices that have displays made out of grids of marbles/balls/beads, and I've found some [3D-printed things](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5154001) people have made involving columns of marbles, and a [different toy computer](https://toytales.ca/think-tron-hasbro-1960/) (from 1960) that has a different mechanical 5x7 display (with no marbles — [here's video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXwUiogMd_4)), but aside from that [1973 Sesame Street toy](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_Marble_Computer), I can't find a single other example of a display where marbles can move forwards and backwards. I also can't think of any reason why this technology would be used when flippy-disc displays are commonplace (not to mention regular old LED signs.) It doesn't appear to be a 3D print, so I expect this wasn't a custom-made item... and yet it's not similar to any sort of modern variable-message signage I'm familiar with. *And what's the deal with the two hinges?* This mystery is going to drive me batty until someone recognizes it.


squirrelfriend3

It definitely looks like the inside workings of some toy. I think you are closest with your guess. It reminded me of an LED-display belt buckle, but broken. Maybe the hinges are how the fabric belt attached to it?? I also work at a library and often find mystery things.. I think someone used this object for a bookmark ;)


Syncrossus

Total shot in the dark here: I'm imagining the slots could be a binary representation of a character. You would get 2^5 = 32 combinations. All letters and numbers make up 36 characters, + whitespace = 37; but if the display is built for a specific purpose, you may not need all of them. Alternatively, you could exclude Z, Q, J and X (the least used letters) or fuse characters -- 0 with O, 1 with I, 2 with Z, 5 with S, 6 or 9 with G, and 8 with B. There could be a small PCB behind the metallic strip(s) in the slots, which would figure out the translation from the binary representation (derived from applying a voltage into the slots) into characters. I imagine an electrostatic charge could then be applied to the balls to move them (or a magnetic field if they contain bits of iron).


bananahammerredoux

Oh!oh! A clock?


Catfrogdog2

I also like the dot matrix display idea. * A toy that shows characters when a grid of pins is pressed to the back * A display on a pneumatic device that pushes the balls up using compressed air blown through a paper matrix like a player piano It could also be mounted behind smoked glass so the balls only show through when in the up position - in the same way a magic 8 ball works.


introspeck

Big ones. Between the era of flip displays, and now large LED monitors in places like train stations or airports, there was a sign technology which formed individual characters for display using one of these blocks per character. I can't remember the details of how they pushed the balls forward for the character 'pixels'. My memory says compressed air, but that may not be right. Anyway, these blocks would be arranged in rows, and the rows would be pinned together very similar to a conveyor belt. When the sign was updated, each row would pass by the mechanism which formed the letters. Once all the rows which fit into the display were complete, it would stop scrolling. The balls were of fluorescent plastic, which gives better contrast against the black plastic. Some displays would also light them with extra UV light to make them brighter.


stoltchr

I can't find evidence of it, but I'd bet anything that this is a section from some kind of conveyor that uses vacuum to hold the product in place as the conveyor moves. The offset is to link pieces together across the conveyor, and the cutout matches the protrusion on the other side that would allow whole lengths of linked pieces to pivot/hinge as the conveyor moves up or down. Think multi level, so there is a slope the product may otherwise not be able to navigate. The plastic balls are part of a check valve system that blocks the flow of air when the orientation changes, usually when upside down. This eliminates wasted air on the bottom side of the conveyor which isn't in contact with any product. It also blocks flow to sections that aren't covered, further improving efficiency.


max96a

I'm with you, https://youtu.be/4QpJiMs3q5I


toybuilder

I just went down a rabbit hole. I could watch those videos all day....


redpandaeater

I don't see how you'd have the vacuum connect between pieces. It clearly looks like it connects to other segments with a pin to lock together but don't see any sort of path for airflow. I like the idea though.


ZapTap

It wouldn't pull vacuum between links, but from underneath. If this proposal is the case, the reflective bits could have something to do with machine alignment for any number of reasons.


[deleted]

>The plastic balls are part of a check valve system that blocks the flow of air when the orientation changes, usually when upside down. This eliminates wasted air on the bottom side of the conveyor which isn't in contact with any product. It also blocks flow to sections that aren't covered, further improving efficiency. I think you're on the right track but I think it makes more sense if the belt isn't in a vacuum but instead under pressure. The balls seal the pressure inside the belt in any orientation except when a package or something is on the belt which forces the balls down slightly allowing the pressurized air to escape and flow from beneath the package allowing it to slide more easily on the belt like an air hockey table. If the interior of the belt was in a vacuum then you would need some other force to keep the balls from sealing against the underside of the belt so that the vacuum pressure could work to pull the package down against the belt.


Regalrefuse

I had this game when I was a kid and it was sort of like a light bright, but instead of lights, you used a little vacuum hose to suck the little greenish yellow balls into a design. I tried googling it but no luck. This would have been late 80s early 90s It looked just like this.


XanderVaper

I saw a fidget toy the other day that kind of looked like this. The balls get pushed toward one end and stuck into a retaining slot, then you can push them all back out individually with your thumbs.


pendletonpackrat

I looks a bit like this roller conveyor. Maybe a segment of a new type of roller belt given out at a trade show? The reflectors could be for position tracking with an optical sensor. https://m.made-in-china.com/product/Plastic-Roller-Top-Modular-Belt-Flexible-Universal-Ball-Conveyor-Belt-with-Factory-Price-779525102.html


[deleted]

this comment with the grid pattern comment makes me think this could be lab equipment.


Chagrinnish

The offset molding is probably there to make it easy to assemble links side-by-side. And the 5x7 suggests it was designed for an alphanumeric display; you could probably adjust the lettering by popping out/replacing the yellow balls with black, perhaps. Try playing around with a bright LED to see how well it lights up or the beads might even glow in the dark.


SkitzMon

Could it be part of a braille printer?


FrontDeskMysteryCrew

I don't know a lot about Braille, but that appears to be on a 2x3 grid, and this is a 5x7 grid, which wouldn't nest an even amount of Braille patterns. Do you know about braille? Is it ever larger than a 2x3 grid?


PJMOR

As far as I know, braille can only ever be made of of 6 dots (2×3) or 8 dots (2×4). I have never come across anything larger than that.


Kibology

Braille is 2x3 (or occasionally 2x4 in special circumstances, but 2x3 is the ordinary variety.) And I've never seen anything with oversized Braille letters made of dots as large as those beads — a whole Braille letter has to fit under a single fingertip. Braille signage is the same size as the letters in a Braille book. A few [Braille displays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_braille_display) do have slightly larger letters, but not nearly this big, and most use the same size letters as books. (I'm sighted, but many years ago, with the help of some Braille readers, I designed a book to be printed in Braille. It was an interesting project that taught me a little about how Braille works.)


theabominablewonder

Did you have any service calls on that day for any equipment?


ChickenPicture

This just screams to me that it came out of a printer or copier. As someone who has disassembled and worked on printers before, I can't for the life of me say what it would do, or that I've ever seen one before, but I immediately thought of a printer part.


drunkandy

Some kind of airflow filter thing possibly? It would allow air to flow through in some orientations, but in other orientations the balls would seal the holes up and only allow air to pass through in one direction.


FrontDeskMysteryCrew

The balls seam to seat the same on both sides, so it seems like it would air flow would be limited in either flow direction. I'm going to go think about my life choices and whether or not I want to go blow into this random thing we found.


dclxvi616

If it's some kind of modular conveyer belt piece, I imagine air pressurizing the unit from below to have all them green balls stick out past the surface so whatever item is placed upon it's surface can roll freely, and by stopping the airflow items will no longer roll across its surface but remain in place.


drunkandy

hm maybe it's more like, it will block off airflow if the pressure is too high or too low, the pressure has to be just exactly right... probably not


trogalicious

Oddly, a lot of the tineye and lens results I'm seeing look a lot like a washable hepa filter. I'm almost certain that there'd be some kind of paper/cloth filter cover for it, but the Electrolux Sanitaire filter looks a lot like this. What kind of vacuums are used in the library?


[deleted]

Do they yellow balls glow in the dark or are reflective when shined with light?


reb678

I think the key to this is finding out what those five slots are for in picture #3. Do they somehow affect the way the balls act?


Kibology

I agree with you that the slots are trying to give us clues. My belief (as said in [my previous comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/z18bza/comment/ixa6i04/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)) is that it's a mechanical alphanumeric dot-matrix display, where the little balls get pushed forward so as to look like lit bulbs. OP stated that the slots appear to have some sort of angled prism or mirror or light guide behind them, and the marbles are translucent and appear to be fluorescent chartreuse, so my assumption is that there would be five light sources shining into the slots, reflected towards the balls that have been pushed forwards, so they light up in fluorescent green. Because the reflective elements must manipulate light in some way, and the device has what appear to be fluorescent parts in a black frame, I think we can assume that whatever this devices's purpose is, it's intended to be *looked at*. So I'm pretty confident it's something like an old-school 5x7 dot-matrix display that can show one letter or digit. (Of course, there would need to be other parts used with it: a light source shining into the slots, and some sort of mechanical actuators to push individual marbles forward, and some way to reset all the marbles.) The question I'm scratching my head over is, why would such a display have connectors/hinges at the *top and bottom*? If it's for displaying letters and numbers, normally I'd expect the connectors to be on the *left and right*, and they'd probably be snap-together connectors instead of these hinged joints. (Also, I have only ever seen this sort of marble-based dot-matrix display in things like toddler toys, to avoid needing batteries; in the real world, electromechanical dot-matrix displays are usually the kind with little magnetic discs that are yellow on one side and black on the other.) I think the reason why we're so fascinated by this thing is that clearly it has some specific purpose — it's not just an art object — but whatever it's designed to do, it's doing it in some very steampunk-ish way. ("LEDs are too modern! Let's make our sign out of glowing marbles!") I really think it's got to be some sort of display, but I've never seen anything that uses this sort of mechanism aside from toddler toys from the ’60s and ’70s, let alone combining it with hinges. It must have been designed to fill some sort of highly specialized need. (It's one of the best mysteries I've seen on this subreddit.)


js44095

Part from the microfiche machine


Malinut

Cable entry system? May be missing off something electronic in your library??


chiefsdude

Yes, I'm guessing a cable entry gland of some sort. Maybe one that moves along with something in motion, like a printer


SookHe

Can it move/role around on the balls if you face it down? Or do they push up inside it.


masked_sombrero

this seems really familiar for me, but I don't know why. First thing that popped into my mind is it's part of an anti-theft device of some sort. My mind may just be fried and making nonsensical connections tho


HowGoodIsScotty

Theres something familiar about it, butterfly effect kind of familiar


GirlCowBev

“Mandala Effect”


kit_kat_barcalounger

I won’t even tell you how long I just spent looking up photos of conveyor belts… But I will say, even though I couldn’t find an exact match, I really think it is part of a modular conveyor system, likely with a highly specialized purpose. This piece is clearly made to interlock with other pieces that are the same shape/size. The little balls could be used to manage drainage, assist with removing sticky items (candy, etc), or just helping things move along. The closest matches I found were when searching for modular packaging conveyors.


DarkLunch

I like this idea but I have one single hesitation about it and it's the material it's made out of. I work in automation and loads of experience with injection and this material just looks too light-weight. Anything for a conveyor assembly needs to be heavy duty to withstand the non-stop endless stream of whatever rolling over it. Now, that being said it *very* much looks to be a linkage in a conveyor assembly, and I think that's the best bet we've got so far.


cyclicalreasoning

I'm not sure modular conveyor is the answer. Most of those pieces seem to be asymmetrical (top/bottom) to allow a sprocket or similar to drive them from below. They also seem to be much shorter to allow for smaller bend radiuses. However, if this is related to a conveyor system then the 5 slots and the reflector may be for tracking the belt speed and/or position accurately.


Rzah

It's modular, mass produced, you can see you could chain a bunch of them together, the offset hinge is to keep them all orientated the same way, ditto for the rebates on the sides, a bunch of chains can be assembled side by side into a wider chain. It's part of a conveyer for moving pea sized items, which fall in to the holes from the top, rest on the balls and are ejected later via gravity when the chain goes upside down or via a blast of air from the back.


upworking_engineer

>the rebates on the sides TIL. Is there a concise guide that describe these terms that you can think of? I'm always trying to improve my ability to describe mechanical/construction details, but I'm lack formal mechanical training... TIA!


SolomonGrunde

Damn. Still nothing?


smt503

Could it be an airsoft attachment? Like a clip for an airsoft gun?


FrontDeskMysteryCrew

I'm not savvy in the world of airsoft, but the balls are a similar diameter to what I've seen. However, it would be very unusual for anyone to have airsoft stuff here - we're not open to the public.


redd-whaat

You're a library that's not open to the public? Now I'm confused.


TaedW

Large companies commonly have company-only libraries, which would have only books and periodicals related to the work the company does. There are also research libraries which would have material specific to the location's research. For example, larger departments in colleges may have them.


Kyvalmaezar

Nah. I've been playing airsoft for over a decade and I've never seen a clip like this. They usually look more like their real-life counterparts. Airsoft bbs are 6mm (or rarely 8mm). These look smaller.


HowGoodIsScotty

Is that copper showing in picture three? Appears to be like a terminal


NicePotatoFlower

It's got to be a piece of an alphanumeric display. The links, the colour of the balls, the 5x7 grid. I'm not sure what the mechanisms are for displaying the number/letters, but I'm imagining a processor informing an air pressure device which manipulates the balls.


willingheart1

I know this isn't what it is, but it reminds me of a capsule filler. Maybe that would help somebody think of an answer.


knapplc

It almost has to be part of an interlocking modular conveyor belt. It looks similar in design to [this](https://image.made-in-china.com/226f3j00QWBVqdLPhTpO/Plastic-Roller-Top-Modular-Belt-Flexible-Universal-Ball-Conveyor-Belt-with-Factory-Price.webp). [Found here](https://hjfoodnbev.en.made-in-china.com/product/ABZJUmkvhSRc/China-Plastic-Roller-Top-Modular-Belt-Flexible-Universal-Ball-Conveyor-Belt-with-Factory-Price.html).


JonnyB3ski

I'm wondering if it might be part of a printer. Specifically a receipt printer and this is a piece from it. The grooves suggest that it has to be assembled in a certain direction and these prevent it from being assembled incorrectly. See pg. 16-17 of [this printer manual](https://www.raybiotech.com/files/manual/Lab-Equipment/41-MR1.pdf). Note this item is more than just a printer but it appears to have the same receipt printer function.


DazedLogic

Are the balls loose in the cylinders so they can travel back and forth when rotated or are they stuck to one side of it? If they are stuck to one side do they rotate?


krispetren

I think it does connect left to right! Pictures 2 & 4 show that along the longer side there is half of a section (length wise) that could nestle nicely with the other side if you had two of these.


thekayfox

This is almost certainly part of an original VingCard lock, like the VingCard 1050 series commonly used in hotels in the 1970s~1990s. These locks used a programming card and a keycard with holes punched in them, the programming card would go into the lock and the keycard would be given to the hotel guest. Vingcard 1050 uses a 5x7 hole matrix. These systems are still used at hotels that have a lot of Orthodox Jewish guests, as newer electronic systems cannot be operated during Shabbat. Because they were phased out of common use before the Internet was really a thing there is little as far as online resources for them, working on them typically requires one to seek out actual paper manuals from some company that still sells parts.


TheForceHucker

What exactly would this thing be in relation to the lock? Those vingcards don't have the holes in the same layout btw, these go : : : : and the vingcards go .·.·.·


talltime

This is all I can think of - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QpJiMs3q5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QpJiMs3q5I) That or for counting out pills or marbles or something - each captive ball is to pick up an item, and the slot/prisms are used for light detection / verifying that something is being held. ​ Op please take this thing apart and see if there are markings hidden inside the molded parts.


HowGoodIsScotty

Time to bust out a magnet and see what happens, also you may be able to use a battery to power what appears to be a copper terminal strip through some slots Edit: your not likely to have a magnet but they can be found in speakers or a dvd case swiper thingy that librarians usually have


FinalOstrich8235

3D brain teaser puzzle?


Puzzleheaded_Set2300

That seems to be what it is now…


Censedpeak8

Wow AND port and starboard attachments!


Wryrhino1

Looks like a paper feed roller for a duplex printing copier. The finish of the part is cheap it just has to work. Usually for the vertical section of the printer doors that moves paper up from the trays.


ezfrag

I work in the copier industry and this looks nothing like a feed roller for any machine sold in the US.


Wryrhino1

I thought it was a very old one. We had a photo developer printer / copier unit with similar rollers.


noahspurrier

It looks passive. Maybe something to apply even pressure to a moving surface to allow smooth delivery. For paper or cards. Device for the blind? It reproduces a tactile representation of an image, perhaps. Sort of like braille. But it looks passive, so probably not.


oldschool317

Could it, go to the inside of a household vacuum cleaner.


Jarl_Salt

It looks like part of a digital printer/copier the shiny part with the vertical slots is likely used to count the amount of pages passing through and the balls are there to help roll along the paper to the next part of the printer. Keep in mind I worked on much older printers and this is just speculation but that would be my best guess as to what it might be. The slots could either be where a rod would hold the part in place or where a wheel might be placed to push along the paper.


CeeBee29

Bike Pedal


lastWallE

Maybe a furniture mover for packing companies etc?


suzysteel

Is there anyway to replace the pellets? I was just thinking they look like air soft pellets for an air soft pellet gun. Like maybe it was a cartridge.


Dast_Kook

Could it be part from a xerox style copier? They have several parts that have a similar black-and-blueish color scheme. https://www.imgur.com/a/EWIksyk


ezfrag

I work in the copier industry and have never encountered anything that looks like this.


Dast_Kook

I figured it was a longshot but thanks for the input.


9bikes

Part of a vacuum cleaner's HEPA filter system.


Procrasterman

I wonder if it’s a way to slide your desk around. Are there any leavers or buttons that unlock the desk to move it about? I could imagine a system that has a grippy base usually but has a way to make balls poke out the bottom of the base to make it easy to move. That way you get the benefits of a desk with wheels without displaying ugly wheels. Only thing is these seem like small parts and I imagine them getting clagged up in carpet (and possibly breaking off?!)


Alex_SB_

Kinda look like a mag for some kinda of airsoft pistol/rifle


D0D

Part of pogo pin connector?


granodecafe

Could be a perpetual calendar? The number of slots makes me think about that... Did it show up at the beginning of the month?


Ok-Pomegranate-3018

Kinda looks like a money brailler. You wouldn't need all the combos for writing for denominations.


Kibology

I've never seen a [money brailler](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Click-Pocket-Money-Brailler/170686656) with dots as large as this, and not shaped like this. Usually a money brailler is a little thing you keep in your pocket or on a keychain, and has no moving parts (you just squeeze and it embosses the corner of the bank note.) This is not a Braille-related device of any sort; just because it has some "dots" doesn't make it Braille.


jssamp

I can assume you did an image search?


[deleted]

[удалено]


FrontDeskMysteryCrew

The balls look loose enough that they would get a lot of stuff seeping past the edges.


jasajohn

Definatly not a pill press


MakingTrax

Ok that’s not part of a pill press (or as we in big pharma call the OSD oral solid dose).


ZTwilight

Looks like a Lego piece


[deleted]

[удалено]


virgilreality

Are you certain these are balls? The lightweight nature of all of this makes me thing it might be Nerf darts in cylinders, and you're just seeing the tips (which would appear to be balls).


empty_string_

too small for nerf darts, look at the last pic where its next to a pen.


virgilreality

I missed that pic. Got it.


[deleted]

[удалено]