| 摘要 |
A feeder wheel has a top surface and a peripheral edge, with volumetric measuring cavities upon at one end to said top surface and at a lower end to said edge. An endless belt is entrained about a portion of the edge, covering cavity outlets open to said edge, but said belt is pulled away from said edge by a pulley at one side of the wheel. Product is dispensed from the cavities when their outlets are uncovered by the belt as the wheel turns. The cavities are filled by dropping product onto the top surface of the wheel and by gradually plowing the product over and into the cavities. The final plow is slightly curved over a number of cavities so the last product cut is gently performed to increase repeatable volumetric accuracy of product in each cavity. A method of feeding volumetric measured product includes dropping product onto the side of a wheel, sweeping the side to move product into volumetrically sized cavities in the wheel, turning the wheel and dispensing products radially from cavity outlets in the wheel edge when uncovered by a belt partially entrained about the wheel edge.
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