VIBRATING FEEDER BOWL WITH ANNULAR ROTATING DISK FEEDER

摘要

An apparatus (10) for orienting and feeding articles (P) that is adapted for use with an automated assembly system having a vibratory feeder bowl (12) with a helical internal track (14) and an annular feeder ring (20) mounted for selective rotational movement around the feeder bowl (12) to receive parts (P) therefrom. A control unit including a stationary camera (40) controls the rotation of the annular feed ring (20) via an operatively connected motor (34) to bring parts (P) on the feeder ring (20) into the vision field of the camera (40) so that correctly oriented parts (P) can be differentiated form incorrectly oriented parts (P). A signal may then be provided to a pick-and-place robot (50) to remove the correctly oriented parts (P). A sweeper bar (SB) is positioned at a selected location to urge incorrectly oriented parts off of the annular feeder ring (20) and back into the feeder bowl (12) for recycling.