Accumulator for object feeder

An object accumulator for a feeder having a vibrated pile material oriented to direct the flow of objects, a feed portion of said pile material being oriented to form a substantially direct object feed route from an input region to an output region, an accumulator portion of said pile material being arranged adjacent and alongside said feed portion at said output region and at the same level as said feed portion, and said accumulator comprising:

• a. a removal portion of said vibrated pile material directly adjacent said feed portion at said output region and oriented relative to the vibration direction of said accumulator to move said objects generally rearwardly relative to the direction of motion of said objects in said feed portion of said output region so that objects crowded out of said feed portion in said output region are pushed onto said removal portion without resistance from the orientation of any of said pile material to prevent jamming of said objects in output region, and said crowded-out objects are moved generally rearwardly of said feed direction;
• b. a re-entry portion of said vibrated pile material directly adjacent said feed portion upstream of and adjacent to said removal portion and oriented in a direction extending toward said feed portion for receiving said crowded-out objects from said removal portion and moving said crowded-out objects back toward said feed portion;
• c. said removal portion and said re-entry portion being oriented and dimensioned relative to the size of said objects and said vibration direction of said accumulator to cooperate in moving said crowded-out objects in a generally arcuate swirl held outside said feed portion by crowding contact with said objects in said feed portion of said output region, said swirl variably accumulating from one to many of said objects, the distance across said swirl varying with the number of said objects crowded into said swirl, and said objects in said swirl being in crowded-together contact with each other and with said objects in said feed portion;
• d. the radially inner portion of said swirl forming a relatively short path of substantially minimum length for a relatively rapid re-entry to said feed portion for said crowded-out objects pushed just outside of said feed portion;
• e. portions of said swirl radially outward from said inner portion forming relatively longer paths up to many times the length of said short path for relatively slower re-entry to said feed portion for said crowded-out objects pushed relatively far away from said feed portion;
• and
• f. said swirl returning said crowded-out objects to said feed portion as soon as space in said feed portion is available.