Bead feeder

A bead feeder for delivering bead-shaped pieces, comprising:

• a bearing plate;
• a storage pipe storing therein a large number of separate bead-shaped pieces in stacked relation;
• a feeding member adapted to be reciprocally moved on a top surface of the bearing plate so that the separate bead-shaped pieces are delivered one by one from the storage pipe to a position just beneath a sewing needle of a sewing machine in accordance with forward and backward movement of the feeding member;
• a support member for carrying, on the bearing plate, a single bead-shaped piece fed from the storage pipe, the support member arranged movable on the bearing plate in conjunction with the forward and backward movement of the feeding member, the support member arranged to be moved relative to the feeding member at the time of the forward or backward movement of the feeding member;
• and
• a clamping section comprising a pair of claws for clamping a single bead-shaped piece carried on the support member, the clamping section operative to clamp the bead-shaped piece in conjunction with the relative movement of the feeding member and the support member, the pair of claws being directly mounted on the support member so that the clamping section moves along with the support member in conjunction with the forward and backward movement of the feeding member section.