Automatic feeding hopper
AssigneeZapata Industries, Inc.
InventorsGeorge Everett, Michael Shapcott
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hopper is constructed to control the rapid, uniform and constant flow of disk-like objects, more particularly bottle crowns. The hopper employs a reservoir and means for feeding the disk-like objects to the reservoir. An electric eye responsive to the level of disk-like objects in the reservoir is connected to the feeding means to maintain a predetermined level of the objects in the reservoir. A conveyor is positioned to adjoin the reservoir to remove and deliver the disk-like objects at a uniform rate to the point of use of the hoppered objects. If the disk-like objects are asymmetrical, an orienting device is provided between the feeding means and the reservoir to orient the objects as they are delivered to the reservoir.
Claims16
A hopper for disk-like objects comprising a supply chute, a reservoir for storing the disk-like objects, the reservoir being dimensioned to receive a plurality of substantially horizontal rows of disk-like objects in a substantially vertical plane, feeding means intermediate the supply chute and the reservoir for feeding the disk-like objects to the reservoir, control means responsive to the level of disk-like objects in the reservoir connected to the feeding means to maintain a predetermined level of objects in the reservoir, a conveyor adjoining the reservoir for engagement with a substantial portion of the lowermost row of objects in the reservoir and for removing the disk-like objects from the reservoir, the disk-like objects being caused by gravity to engage the conveyor, means for driving the conveyor, and an exit chute adjacent the conveyor to receive the disk-like objects in an aligned row from the conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.