Abstract: A hinge feeder for feeding open hinges at a predetermined orientation to a receiver ready for use by an automatic door hinger. A dispenser is provided to hold a stack of closed hinges. The orientation of the top end and hinge joint of each hinge is sensed and the hinges sequentially dispensed at a uniform orientation, except for the pinhead location, to a rotator that rotates those hinges to bring their top ends to a desired side. The hinges are then opened by a leaf turner, fed to a stacker and the opened and oriented hinges then deposited in a stack by a stacker.

Abstract: A rotary tool capable of employing one of two tool implements, alternatively, and capable of shifting between the two implements semi-automatically. A rotatable mandrel carries a first tool implement and a carriage is mounted on the mandrel to rotate around the same axis and carries a second implement. The carriage is moveable axially relative to the mandrel between a rearward position where the second implement is inactive and the first implement is at an advanced active position and a forward position where the second implement is at an advanced active and the first implement is at a retracted inactive position. An interlock device is provided for the mandrel and carriage that stops axial movement of the carriage beyond the forward position and stops rotational movement between the mandrel and the carriage while the carriage is at the forward position.

Abstract: A screw feeder adapted for rapid changeover of the type of screws to be fed. The feeder has a collator section having a floor with slots to collate random screws into rows and an enclosure about the floor for retaining random screws on the floor. The collated screws are fed along the slots into slots in a dispensing section of the feeder where they are then moved in queues to an escapement to be picked off one by one for deposit into a receiver. The collator section floor is oscillated about an axis between a position where the floor slopes downward from a downstream end in the slot direction from an upstream end in the opposed slot direction to a position where the floor slots slope upward to the upstream end.