Mechanism and method for orienting articles

Mechanism for orienting articles of uniform size and asymmetrical shape, comprising:

• a base;
• a platform disposed above said base;
• means adjustably positioning the platform relative to said base including a hinge at one end of the platform supporting the platform for tilting movement about a transverse hinge axis, and an adjustable support for the opposite end portion of the platform holding the platform in a preselected angular position about the hinge axis with the opposite end portion of the hopper elevated;
• a supply hopper mounted on the elevated end portion of the platform and having a discharge opening for releasing articles downwardly toward the platform;
• an elongated, hollow tube disposed above said platform and having an open upper end adjacent said hopper to receive articles from the discharge opening and an open lower end adjacent the lower end of the platform for releasing the articles, said tube having a relatively smooth-walled bore of circular cross-section of a preselected size substantially larger than the articles to be oriented;
• means supporting said tube on said platform for rotation about the longitudinal axis of the tube, including two rollers positioned along said tube and spaced apart transversely thereof, and a circular support surface coaxial with said tube having an outside diameter larger than said preselected distance and nested between said rollers to be supported thereby with the underside of the tube at a preselected level above the platform;
• a variable speed motor drivingly coupled to one of said rollers to rotate said tube at a selected rate of rotation thereby to agitate the articles laterally as the articles gravitate down the tube;
• and at least one additional elongated tube similar to, and interchangeable with, the first-mentioned tube and having a bore of substantially different size for use in orienting articles of a substantially different size, said additional tube also having a coaxial circular support surface having an outside diameter larger than said preselected distance and different from the outside diameter of the surface of the first-mentioned tube to support the underside of the additional tube at said preselected level above the platform;
• the angle of said platform and the rate of rotation of said drive rollers being adjustable to provide selected gravitation and agitation rates and said tubes being interchangeable for different sizes of parts.