Elongate member orienting ramp

摘要

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for orienting elongate members and, in particular tapered needle blanks. Generally, the apparatus includes a needle feeding assembly which receives needle blanks at an inlet and sequentially transfers the needle blanks to a needle orienting ramp which orients the needle blanks in a barrel end downward configuration. A barrel end of the needle blank, being heavier and having a greater diameter than that of a tapered point of the needle blank, moves down the rampway such that the barrel end of the needle blank advances ahead of a tapered point of the needle blank causing the needle blank to assume a barrel end downward or toward orientation on the rampway. A collecting assembly is provided at an outlet end of the needle orienting ramp to collect and maintain the needle blanks in oriented fashion. In one embodiment, the needle blanks are encouraged to move along the rampway by elevating an inlet end of the rampway with respect to an outlet end of the rampway. The needle blanks may be suspended on the rampway by needle end supporting surfaces or low or essentially frictionless surfaces. The apparatus according to the present invention may additionally include structure for sequentially supplying a plurality of needle blanks to the inlet end of the rampway and structure for collecting and maintaining the oriented tapered needle blanks.