Article feeding apparatus

An article feeding apparatus comprising:

• (a) a plurality of feed troughs disposed side by side with each other with their take-in ends formed as flat surfaces in juxtaposed relation in a plane;
• (b) a plurality of arranging conveyors parallel with each other and each being effected to cause articles being fed thereon from its associated feed trough to pass therealong in a line, each of said arranging conveyors comprising a pair of article separating brushes parallelly extending in the direction of feed of articles and supported for rotation, said article separating brushes being spirally wound to give a fixed direction of transfer to said articles;
• (c) pool hoppers disposed at the take-out ends of said arranging conveyors and adapted to open and close;
• (d) a bucket conveyor for feeding to the next process the articles dropped therein from said pool hoppers one by one, said buckets supported to turn around the axes of pivots;
• and
• (e) article separating means disposed at a predetermined position in the path of travel of the buckets of said bucket conveyor and adapted to separate a plurality of articles from each other if such a plurality is charged into a bucket.

An article feeding apparatus comprising:

• (a) a plurality of feed troughs disposed side by side with each other with their take-in ends formed as flat surfaces in juxtaposed relation in a plane;
• (b) a plurality of arranging conveyors parallel with each other and each being effective to cause articles being fed thereon from its associated feed trough to pass therealong in a line;
• (c) pool hoppers disposed at the take-out ends of said arranging conveyors and adapted to open and close;
• (d) a bucket conveyor for feeding to the next process the articles dropped therein from said pool hoppers one by one, said buckets supported to turn around the axes of pivots, wherein said buckets are carried at equal intervals on a pair of endless chains driven by suitable means, and the bottom surfaces of said buckets are formed of a plurality of wires extending parallel between the opposed lateral plates of each bucket;
• and
• (e) article separating means disposed at a predetermined position in the path of travel of the buckets of said bucket conveyor and adapted to separate a plurality of articles from each other if such a plurality is charged into a bucket, said article separating means including at least one rotary brush with the tips of its bristles penetrating between the wires.

An article feeding apparatus comprising:

• (a) a plurality of feed troughs disposed side by side with each other with their take-in ends formed as flat surfaces in juxtaposed relation in a plane;
• (b) a plurality of arranging conveyors parallel with each other and being effective to cause articles being fed thereon from its associated feed trough to pass therealong in a line;
• (c) pool hoppers disposed at the take-out ends of said arranging conveyors and adapted to open and close;
• (d) a bucket conveyor for feeding to the next process the articles dropped therein from said pool hoppers one by one, said buckets supported to turn around the axes of pivots, said buckets being carried at equal intervals on a pair of endless chains driven by suitable means, the bottom surfaces of said buckets being formed by installing a net-like member of suitable material between the opposed lateral plates of each bucket;
• and
• (e) article separating means disposed at a predetermined position in the path of travel of the buckets of said bucket conveyor and adapted to separate a plurality of articles from each other if such a plurality is charged into a bucket, said article separating means including at least one rotary brush with the tips of its bristles penetrating into the net-like member forming the bottom surface of the buckets.