Can end feed mechanism

In a mechanism for feeding individual can ends from a stack thereof, which ends have curled peripheral edge portions, the combination comprising:

• stacking means for disposing a multiplicity of can ends in a generally vertical stack;
• a transfer bar for providing underlying support for the ends in said stacking means, and for individually releasing ends therefrom, said transfer bar having an opening formed therein which is dimensioned and configured to seat, and to provide underlying support for, one of the end blanks, and having a platform portion adjacent to said opening on which the ends in said stacking means may rest;
• and means for mounting said bar for reciprocation in a generally horizontal plane beneath said stacking means, so as to alternately align on the axis of said stacking means said platform portion and said opening thereof, said transfer bar also including a pair of elongated blades mounted in confronting relationship to one another along the opposite sides of said opening therein, the spacing between said blades gradually decreasing from their forward ends, to cause rearward portions thereof to project beyond the adjacent margins of said opening and to thereby cooperatively define a tapered channel thereto, the inner edges of said forward portions of said blades being of generally wedge-shaped cross section to provide upper and lower inclined surfaces thereon, said blades also having upper support surfaces thereon on said rearward portions thereof, which support surfaces ae more horizontally disposed than said upper inclined surfaces of said inner edges to provide ledge portions for support of the stack of can ends on said blades, said blades being so disposed on said transfer bar as to pass between the lowemost end and the adjacent end with the stack thereof supported on said platform portion, and so that, upon movement of said bar from a position in which said platform portion is aligned on said stacking axis to a position in which said opening is aligned thereon, first contact of the can ends occurs on said forward portions of said blades, with said inclined surfaces of said edge portions thereof making substantially tangential contact with the curled peripheral edge portions of the lowermost end and the end thereabove, thereby urging the ends apart and effecting disengagement of the lowermost end so as to permit it, upon further movement of said transfer bar and alignment of said opening thereof on said stacking axis, to drop thereinto while the remainder of the stack is supported upon said ledge portions of said blades.