Apparatus for automatically dispensing non-round flexible containers

An apparatus for dispensing non-round, flexible, elastic, flanged containers having corners and non-vertical sides, from the bottom of a nested stack of the containers, said apparatus comprising:

• (a) a base;
• (b) support means on the base for supporting said nested stack of containers;
• (c) compressive means on the base for creating a gap between the flanges of the bottommost and penultimate container by applying opposing compressive forces to the sidewalls of said bottommost container to cause the containers nested in the bottommost container to rise vertically;
• (d) separating means on the base arranged and constructed for insertion into the gap created by said compressive means, said separating means also being arranged and constructed so that it may support the penultimate container and the remainder of the stack nested therein;
• and
• (e) release means for releasing the bottommost container from said base and from the remainder of the containers in said nested stack;
• one support means, one separating means, one release means, and one compressive means comprising a rotor assembly wherein the support, separating, and release means are rotatably fixed with respect to each other and the compressive means is rotatably and eccentrically mounted with respect to the support, separating and release means.

A rotor assembly for use in an apparatus for dispensing non-round, flexible, elastic, flanged containers having corners and non-vertical sides, from the bottom of a nested stack of said containers, said apparatus having a base and external drive means;

• said rotor assembly comprising:
• (a) a shaft journaled to the base for rotation;
• (b) means on the shaft for coupling the shaft to the external drive means for rotating the shaft;
• (c) a top disc;
• (d) a separator blade;
• (e) a wiper blade;
• and
• (f) a squeezer wheel;
• wherein the top disc, separator blade, and wiper blade are fixedly mounted with respect to each other on the shaft, and the squeezer wheel is eccentrically and rotatably mounted with respect to the top disc, separator blade, and wiper blade on the shaft.

A process for dispensing non-round, flexible, elastic, flanged containers having corners and non-vertical sides, from the bottom of a nested stack of such containers, said process comprising:

• (a) providing an apparatus having a base and a plurality of rotor assemblies, each rotor assembly being rotatably mounted on the base and comprising:
• (i) a shaft journaled to the base for rotation;
• (ii) a separator blade;
• (iii) a wiper blade;
• (iv) a top disc;
• and
• (v) a squeezer wheel;
• wherein the separator blade, wiper blade, and top disc are fixedly mounted with respect to each other on the shaft, and the squeezer wheel is eccentrically and rotatably mounted with respect to the separator blade, wiper blade, and top disc, on the shaft;
• (b) supporting the stack of containers on the top discs;
• (c) rotating the rotor assemblies to bring the squeezer wheels into contact with the corners of the bottommost container to compress the corners of the bottommost container so that the containers nested in the bottommost container rise, thereby creating a gap between the flanges of the bottommost and penultimate containers;
• (d) rotating the rotor assemblies to insert the separator blades into the gap created by step (c) and to decompress the corners of the bottommost container;
• and
• (e) rotating the rotor assemblies to dispense the bottommost container and drop the formerly penultimate container onto the top discs, whereby steps (b) to (e) can be repeated.