Fiber filling system

A fiber filling system for feeding and stuffing a quantity of fiber material into a hollow, stuffable article such as a toy, pillow, furniture or cushion casing, said fiber filling system comprising:

• means for combing and separating fiber materials, said means for combing and separating including a hopper for receiving clumped fiber, said hopper having a necked portion for passing said clumped fiber to a pair of intermeshing comb elements having a plurality of teeth that have relative meshing motion with respect to each other for picking apart and combing said clumped fiber into individual fibers, driving means connected to at least one of said comb elements for causing said relative meshing motion between said teeth of said comb elements, means defining an outlet disposed adjacent said meshing comb elements for passing said individual fibers to a fiber circulation chamber;
• a fiber circulation chamber connected to the outlet of said combing and separating means, said circulation chamber having an air circulation path for aerating and fluffing the combed and separated fiber materials, said fiber circulation chamber having a stagnation zone adjacent said air circulation path in which fluffed fibers are accumulated without circulating;
• and
• a stuffing means having at least one elongated chute connected to said circulation chamber adjacent said stagnation zone for receiving the aerated and fluffed fiber materials from said fiber circulation chamber, said stuffing means further comprising a manual control for feeding a metered amount of said aerated and fluffed fiber materials from said stagnation zone of said fiber circulation chamber through said chute to a stuffable article.