Feeding flexible products

#This invention relates to feeding flexible products, such as pouches.

#Pouches are used to package a wide variety of products such as spices and other dry powdered products, seeds, sterile medical supplies, sample sizes of shampoo, and individual servings of condiments. It may be desired to dispense pouches into an assembly line as, for example, when a pouch is to be inserted into a box or envelope. By virtue of their flexible nature and variable thickness, it is difficult to feed pouches one at a time in automated processes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,809 to Long issued Aug. 31, 1993 addresses this issue by feeding pouches incorporated into a web to a dispensing area where individual pouches are guillotined from the web. A drawback with this approach is that the guillotine may occasionally sever a pouch. When this occurs, the contents of the pouch may spill, fouling the equipment. Furthermore, this approach requires manufacturing the pouches in a web.

#Therefore, a need remains for an approach to feeding pouches and other flexible products which avoids the identified drawbacks.

#In the figures which illustrate example embodiments of the invention,

#FIG. 1 is a side view of a feeder made in accordance with this invention,

#FIG. 2 is a top perspective view of the feeder of FIG. 1 shown from a dispensing end,

#Turning to the figures, a feeder 10 feeds pouches 26 in a downstream direction 11 from a pouch stack support 12. The pouch stack support declines to an inclined conveyor 14 which, in the illustrated embodiment, is an endless friction belt. The pouch stack support 16 comprises sidewalls 18a, 18b each with an inwardly directed flange 20a, 20b, respectively, that form a gapped floor of the pouch stack support. The gap between the flanges accommodates an urging conveyor 22 which, in the example embodiment, is an endless friction belt. A stack 24 of pouches 26 is supported by the pouch stack support 12 such that a pouch 26b at the base of the stack 24 rests on the inclined conveyor. However, an abutment 28 which, in the example embodiment, is a bar extending between the sidewalls 18a, 18b of the pouch stack support 12, is positioned proximate the inclined conveyor 14 and urging conveyor 22 to space the lower end of pouch 26a from the inclined conveyor 14. A sensor 32 is positioned adjacent, but upstream of, the bar to sense the lower end of pouch 26b. (In the schematic views, this sensor 32 is shown below urging conveyor 22. In reality, a hole will be provided through a sidewall of the pouch stack support 12 to allow the sensor a “view” adjacent the bar.)

#A curved plate 36 has a flat upstream portion extending over the stack 24 of pouches and a curved downstream portion that forms a nip 38 at the upper end of the inclined conveyor 14.

#An overhead conveyor 40 is positioned overhead of the inclined conveyor 14 and an underlying conveyor 42 underlies the overhead conveyor 40. In the example embodiment, both of these feeders are endless belts.