Abstract: A combinatorial automatic weighing apparatus has a plurality of weighing machines each including a pool hopper and a weighing hopper which are removable from a driver unit and a weighing mechanism, respectively. The pool hopper has removable guide plates for guiding articles as supplied from a dispersing table of the weighing apparatus, and also has on its outer sidewall guide members removably held in sliding engagement with a support bracket attached to the driver unit mounted on a tiltable stand supported on a frame. The pool hopper has a bottom cover drivable by the driver unit through a lever mechanism composed of disengageable levers. The weighing hopper has on its outer sidewall guide members removably held in sliding engagement with a support bracket secured to the weighing mechanism. The pool hopper and the weighing hopper can easily be removed for easy and thorough cleaning thereof.

Abstract: A combinatorial weighing system designed for weighing out a desired number or weight of articles, wherein groups of articles are respectively weighed by a plurality of weighing machines, combinatorial addition is performed on all or a fixed number of possible combinations for weighed values obtained, a particular combination whose combination value is equal or the closest to a set value is selected, and articles are discharged from the weighing hoppers corresponding to the selected combination. It is contemplated to improve performance of this system by ensuring that groups of articles successively discharged from the weighing hoppers are collected separately one from the other without intermingling. To that end, the weighing hopper may have two discharge ports so as to discharge articles toward different discharge paths defined in a chute.