Machine for orienting an article and performing a work operation on the article

An apparatus for orienting articles which are moved past a work station so that a work operation can be performed on the articles while the articles are oriented, said apparatus comprising:

• orienting means for guiding the articles along a predetermined path and for retaining said articles in a predetermined angular orientation as the articles are moved through said path, said path passing through a work station;
• said orienting means including a wheel having a peripheral surface for engaging the articles on at least one side thereof, at least a portion of the peripheral surface of said wheel being resiliently deformable, and means for mounting said wheel for rotation about a rotational axis with the peripheral surface being movable along said path, said rotational axis extending generally transverse to the direction of movement of the articles along said path;
• and
• said orienting means including means cooperable with the wheel for engaging the articles on at least the other side thereof to urge the articles against the resilient deformable surface and into said resilient, deformable surface sufficiently to capture the articles and hold the articles in said predetermined orientation during normal operation of the apparatus as such articles move through the work station.

An apparatus for performing a work operation on articles which are moved along a path by a conveyor, said apparatus comprising:

• a wheel having a peripheral surface, at least a portion of said peripheral surface being resiliently deformable;
• means for mounting said wheel for rotation about a rotational axis which extends generally transverse to the direction of movement of the conveyor adjacent said wheel, said wheel being adapted to lie at least partially in the path of the articles conveyed to the wheel by the conveyor;
• motor means for rotating said wheel about said rotational axis;
• guide means adjacent said peripheral surface of said wheel for urging articles conveyed to the peripheral surface of said wheel against the peripheral surface to resiliently deform the peripheral surface sufficiently to capture the articles and hold the articles in a predetermined orientation whereby the articles are captured between the guide means and the wheel and held in a predetermined orientation during normal operation of the apparatus;
• and
• means for performing a work operation on each of the articles when each of said articles is held in said predetermined orientation.

An apparatus for performing a work operation on articles which are moved past a work station, said apparatus comprising:

• orienting means for guiding the articles along a predetermined path and for retaining said articles in a predetermined angular orientation as the articles are moved through said path, said path passing through the work station;
• means for performing a work operation on the articles at the work station while such articles are held in said predetermined orientation;
• said orienting means including first means for engaging the articles on at least one side thereof, said first means having a resilient, deformable surface and means for mounting said first means for movement along said path at the work station;
• and
• said orienting means including means cooperable with the first means for engaging the articles on at least the other side thereof to urge the articles against the resilient deformable surface and into said resilient, deformable surface sufficiently to capture the articles and hold the articles in said predetermined orientation during normal operation of the apparatus as such articles move through the work station.