Reversed venturi system for separating and feeding nested foam cups

摘要

An apparatus for separating nested foam cups, includes a support for guiding a stack of nested foam cups in a first direction to a mandrel for printing thereon; a first annular opening in the support for supplying an annular supply of pressurized air to a position between a forwardmost foam cup and a next adjacent nested foam cup such that the pressurized air travels in a second direction having a component opposite to the first direction and such that the pressurized air travels in a cavity between the forwardmost cup and the nested adjacent cup to separate the forwardmost cup from the next adjacent cup; and second openings in the support downstream of the first annular opening for supplying pressurized air to the separated forwardmost cup in order to further advance the forwardmost cup toward the mandrel.