Inline vacuum slug feeder

摘要

An in line feed method and apparatus for forming slugs of incoming items, which are standing on edge and aligned front-to-back is disclosed. The process uses a conveyor belt and a vacuum chamber aligned end to end for separating the flow of items and creating slugs. The items introduced to the system are on a conveyor belt. The belt is periodically stopped and the items blocked from being sucked into the vacuum chamber. While the product is blocked from entering the vacuum chamber a moving finger which travels through the chamber is introduced at the mouth of the vacuum chamber and the items are released from the conveyor belt such that they are sucked into the vacuum chamber but are limited by and stack up against the finger. In this manner slugs are formed.