Article feed system for aligning and singulating articles

A centrifugal article feed system for orienting and aligning incoming articles, the centrifugal article feed system comprising:

• an outer bowl having an upper rim surface;
• an inner disk disposed within the outer bowl and extending at an incline from a lower portion of the outer bowl upwardly adjacent the upper rim surface for delivering articles from the lower portion of the outer bowl upwardly to the upper rim surface;
• a drive system operatively connected to the outer bowl and the inner disk that rotates the outer bowl and the inner disk;
• a guide wall extending upwardly above the upper rim surface that guides the articles travelling along the upper rim surface toward an end of the guide wall;
• and
• a vertically oriented article engaging-type conveyor including a moving article engaging surface that receives the articles as the articles pass the end of the guide wall;
• wherein a distance between the guide wall and an inner edge of the upper rim surface is substantially constant over an article guide distance along which the articles travel on the upper rim surface;
• wherein the distance between the guide wall and the inner edge of the upper rim surface is no greater than about 150 percent of a width of the article.

A method of aligning and orienting articles using a centrifugal article feed system comprising an outer bowl having an upper rim surface and an inner disk disposed within the outer bowl and extending at an incline from a lower portion of the outer bowl upwardly adjacent the upper rim surface, the method comprising:

• rotating the outer bowl and the inner disk disposed within the outer bowl;
• moving articles fed to the article feed system along the inner disk from the lower portion of the outer bowl upwardly to the upper rim surface;
• transferring the articles from the inner disk to the upper rim surface;
• guiding the articles as the articles travel with the upper rim surface using a guide wall that extends upwardly above the upper rim surface;
• and
• transferring the articles from the upper rim surface through an exit opening in the guide wall to a vertically oriented vacuum conveyor providing a conveyor transfer path that is substantially tangential to a periphery of the outer bowl at the upper rim surface.