Apparatus for protecting the exterior of stacked disks

摘要

An apparatus for sequentially releasing computer disks from a stack includes a hopper and a pusher member for sliding a lowermost disk from beneath the stack. A next lowermost disk is held at an angle to the lowermost disk to limit contact of the disks to rearward disk edges, so that sliding contact is minimized. The front edge of the next lowermost disk is supported by a sloped surface to achieve the desired angle and to allow gravitational feed of the disks as the pusher plate is unloaded by a forward disk delivery and a rearward return. At the rearward end of the next lowest disk, an inwardly sloped surface provides space for the disk to slide down the outwardly sloped surface into the loaded position. Preferably, the hopper is one of a number of hoppers used in collating computer disks.