FEEDING MECHANISM AND METHOD

摘要

A feeding mechanism and method for feeding objects singulated from a bulk mass of objects includes receiving the bulk mass into a hopper system having a hopper screw set including first and second hopper screws and a plurality of feeding pockets defined by the thread forms of the hopper screws. Rotation of the hopper screws tumbles the bulk mass to cascade and singulate individual objects into respective feed pockets. An object set including at least one singulated object is discharged from the hopper screw set by rotation of the hopper screws. A discharge assembly including a ramp and star wheel receives the discharged object set, and transfers the object set to a discharge outlet. The object set output from the discharge outlet is received by a target defined by a receiving article. In one example, the object is rounded, the target is an opening of a container.

主权项

1. A feeding mechanism comprising:
a hopper system including a hopper and a hopper screw set; a first opening defined by the hopper to receive a plurality of objects; a second opening defined by the hopper to receive a hopper portion of the hopper screw set; the hopper screw set including the hopper portion and a discharge portion disposed between the hopper portion and a discharge end of the hopper screw set; a discharge wall defined by the hopper and separating the discharge portion and the hopper portion; the hopper screw set including a first hopper screw and a second hopper screw; wherein each of the first and second hopper screws defines a respective thread form and is rotatable on a respective screw axis; wherein the first and second hopper screws are adjacent each other to define a longitudinal axis therebetween and such that the thread forms of the first and second hopper screws cooperate to define a plurality of feed pockets parallel to the longitudinal axis and in communication with the second opening; and wherein each feed pocket of the plurality of feed pockets is configured to receive an object of the plurality of objects to singulate the object from the plurality of objects.