Feeding and indexing apparatus

摘要

An feeding and indexing apparatus has article feed units which can start and stop along a circular path at specific time intervals when drive arms are rotated at a constant speed. A cam assembly is disposed radially inwardly of and concentrically with the circular path, and cam followers are movable in contact with the cam assembly. The drive arms are rotatable about the center of the cam assembly. Driven arms are operatively coupled to the drive arms, respectively, at respective junction points and to the cam followers, respectively. The cam assembly has a wavy cam profile including a plurality of mountains and a plurality of valleys alternating with the mountains. A pitch angle between adjacent ones of the mountains or valleys of the cam assembly is different from a pitch angle between adjacent ones of the junction points of the drive arms and the driven arms, so that the article feed units operate at slightly different times.