Abstract: A dispensing apparatus for gravity feeding of a dispensable product includes containing means and dispensing means. The containing means is adapted to contain the dispensable product and is operatively connected to the dispensing means whereby the dispensing means includes a chute means. Rotation of the chute means can cause the dispensable product to be able to be dispensed.

Abstract: A method for delivering fasteners to a remote installation tool is provided. The method includes delivering a first fastener of a first type to a remote installation tool in response to receiving a request for a fastener of the first type from an operator and staging a second fastener of the first type for delivery to the remote installation tool. The staging begins prior to receiving a request for another fastener of the first type from the operator. The staging includes retrieving the second fastener of the first type from a storage location and transferring the second fastener of the first type from the storage location to a staging location.

Abstract: There is described an apparatus for loading test tubes (1) in conveying devices (6) included in an automatic conveyor (7) for test tubes, comprising a recruiting device (2) for test tubes adapted to feed test tubes to a positioning device (4) for test tubes having a lane (15, 16) consisting of two spaced, parallel walls (17) on the edges of which respective motorized belts (18) slide, the distance between said walls (17) forming the lane (15) being adjustable and such that a test tube makes a 90° rotation when horizontally falling from the recruiting device (2), thus remaining vertically hanging and resting on the belts (18) by the projecting part of the cap with respect to the lateral body of the test tube. The belts (18) convey the test tube to a loading area (8) where the test tubes are handled by a test tube handling device (5) to a working point (9) included in the conveyor (7) adapted to automatically convey test tubes from and to modules for preparing and analyzing biological material.

Abstract: Apparatus and processes for forwarding of cuvettes stored unarranged, in which, from a storage place, the cuvettes are forwarded for further use in an arranged way. The unarranged cuvettes have a suitable geometry, and are elevated between the edges of arranging cuvette elevator members, being elevated up to the output opening for arranged cuvettes. Through an output opening, the cuvettes arranged side by side are removed and are forwarded by a cuvette-advancing pusher (21) operated along the edges (19) of the raised arranging elements (18) by a drive mechanism. The cuvette elevators (18) are subsequently returned to their initial position at a bottom having two slight inclines (17).

Abstract: An article dispensing apparatus has a housing defining a first chamber and a second chamber that are divided by a dividing wall, a lid covering the second chamber and a cover covering the first chamber, with the first chamber holding a plurality of articles, and an opening provided in the dividing wall to allow an article to pass through to the second chamber. A figure is retained inside the second chamber, the figure having a pair of arms that are normally positioned adjacent the opening in the dividing wall to receive an article that is transferred from the first chamber via the opening in the dividing wall. An actuator is coupled to the figure to push the figure upwardly through the lid so that the figure, and the article held in the arms of the figure, are delivered outside the housing.

Abstract: A machine particularly adapted for dispensing light items packaged in pliable pouches or packets having a machine graspable crowned carrier. The items are propelled in a queue through a tubular cartridge along a track having a ratcheting mechanism to be individually dispensed. A motorized reciprocation bolt engages the mechanism at the back of the cartridge. Multiple cartridges can be grouped together in an expandable array using an interlocking bar and T system to form a removable magazine. Each cartridge can be selectively addressed and activated by its dedicated motorized bolt. In a preferred embodiment of the ratcheting mechanism, the heads of the package carriers are held within a C-shaped track and propelled by the alternating back-and forth motion of a crenelated drive rack successively pushing a sled at the rear of the package queue. A self-engaging brake impedes backward movements of the sled and packages during a return stroke of the drive rack.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus for feeding screws. In the apparatus, screws are scooped up from the storage container by a scooping unit and put onto a carrying unit. The screws are arranged in line and carried by the carrying unit and discharged through a discharge unit. The scooping unit includes a rotating arm which rotates on the outer wall of the storage container, and a magnet which is fastened to the front end of the rotating arm. The carrying unit includes a screw receiving part. The rotating arm rotates on the outer wall of the storage container to scoop up the screws using magnetic force of the magnet and load the screws onto the screw receiving part. The scooping unit further includes a magnet spacing part which is provided on the outer wall of the storage container.

Abstract: An exemplary fastener feeder includes a pair of guiders, a slot cover and a blocker. The guiders define a sliding slot therebetween. Each guider includes a sloped part and a level part, bodies of the fasteners are capable of being received in the sliding slot, and a head of each fastener is capable of sliding down from the sloped parts and stopping on the level parts. The slot cover defines an opening for providing a path through which a fastener pickup device can pass through and engage with a fastener located on the level parts. The blocker is located below the level parts. When the fastener pickup device moves the fastener head engaged therewith away from the opening and a length of the fastener is greater than a distance between the blocker and the level parts, the fastener is blocked by blocker and disengaged from the fastener pickup device.

Abstract: A tablet feeder including a tablet accommodating section (4) capable of accommodating a multiplicity of tablets A; a tablet array member (8) which is disposed in the tablet accommodating section (4) and which, while being driven and rotated, retains the tablets A one after another in pockets (11) formed in an outer periphery thereof and discharges the tablets at a discharge position; and a partitioning member (13) whose partitioning portion (14) having a shape of a brush partitions the pocket (11) so that the upper tablets A do not fall into the lower pocket (11). Thereby, the tablets A that are retained in the pocket (11) of the tablet array member (8) are discharged in a predetermined number. The partitioning member (13) includes a plurality of brush elements (15a, 15b) constituting a partitioning portion (14). At least part of the brush elements (15a) each has a tip that is bent in a U-shape. Thus, deformation of the brush elements (15a), constituting the partitioning member (13), can be surely prevented.

Abstract: A storage device for bottles with a neck, comprising at least one coupling member suitable for suspending the device beneath a shelf of a domestic refrigerator, and a hollow dispensing guide extending longitudinally from a rear end to a front end having a dispensing opening. The dispensing guide has a top face provided with the coupling member, a bottom face and a C-shaped cross section with an opening into the bottom face. The opening has a width suitable for allowing the narrowed portion of the neck of a bottle to slide freely and so that the longitudinal rims of the opening oriented toward the inside form bearing rails of a length more than twice the diameter of the widened portion of the neck of the bottle, on which this widened portion rests when the bottle is suspended.

Abstract: A fastener dispenser including a housing having a plurality of rails formed thereon. The rails have terminal ends that are open to facilitate the passage of fasteners into or out of the housing. Fasteners are removably secured between adjacent rails and maintained in a predefined orientation by the adjacent rails. The fastener dispenser also includes fastener release means on the terminal ends of the rails for maintaining fasteners between adjacent rails. The fastener release means also allow a user to selectively dispense a desired number of fasteners from between the rails.

Abstract: A bulk vending machine provides a dispensing conduit having a revolving mouth that floats on top of a heap of articles in the product bin. The mouth is movable between a horizontal orientation, in which the mouth can scoop articles off of the surface of the heap, and a vertical orientation in which a throat of the dispensing conduit opens to allow an article which has been scooped into the mouth to fall through the dispensing chute. Revolution of the dispensing conduit by turning the handle causes the mouth to revolve around the heap of articles, scooping up one or more articles in its path.

Abstract: An orienting ejector is provided capable of orienting and ejecting fasteners of any size such as fasteners having a length that is greater than, equal to, or less than the diameter of their head. The orienting ejector is able to orient a fastener to an appropriate orientation prior to ejecting. A sensor is used to sense whether the fastener is oriented properly. If the fastener is not oriented properly, the orienting ejector discards the fastener.

Abstract: A part sorting and aligning apparatus for picks parts out of a hopper, aligns the parts and conveys them to another location. The apparatus includes a tilted rotary wheel next to the hopper. Multiple arrays of hooks or pickup members are mounted for rotation on the wheel. The bottom of the hopper has a sliding plate which has slots through which the hooks travel as the hooks move upwardly into and through the hopper. Each pickup member has a weight bar which hangs from the pickup member. As the wheel rotates, the hooks engage and pick up parts as the hooks move upwardly through the hopper. The weight bar maintains a desired orientation of the hooks and the parts as the wheel rotates. Pair of rails pick the parts off of the hooks, so that the parts can be transferred to another location.

Abstract: An orientation maintained fastener delivery system (10) includes an escapement (14), a transfer system (16), and an injector (18). The escapement (14) regulates the flow of fasteners (20) through the orientation maintained fastener delivery system (10). The escapement (14) also delivers fasteners (20) in a desired orientation to the transfer system (16). The transfer system (16) includes a plurality of tubes (26,30) and a distributor (28). The tubes (26,30) maintain the desired orientation of the fasteners (20) as the fasteners (20) are transported to the injector (18). The distributor (28) aligns a tube (26) coupled to the escapement (14) with a tube (30) coupled to the injector (18). The injector (18) receives fasteners (20) from the transfer system (16) in the desired orientation and delivers the fasteners (20) in the desired orientation to an installation device (22).

Abstract: A gravity feed merchandise dispensing device comprises at least one plastic track capable of supporting in tandem a row of similar bottles of the type having an annular neck flange, and has a lead bottle support basket suspended at the front end of the track which is removable and interchangeable with other lead bottle supports so as to accommodate bottles of different heights. The rails of the track have a sloped transition section at the front end of the track which eases movement of bottles off the track and into the basket, and facilitates the front loading of bottles into the track.

Abstract: A bottle dispenser has a gate mechanism to maintain the foremost one of the track-supported bottles substantially vertical. The dispenser includes an elongate track which defines a longitudinally extending pathway, a support assembly for the track, and a stopper provided at the front end of the track. The track supports a row of flanged bottles such that the bottles are suspended by their neck flanges for movement along the pathway and removable from the pathway through the front end of the track. The support assembly supports the track such that the track is inclined toward its front end whereby the suspended bottles are allowed to gravity feed toward the front end when the leading bottle in the row is removed from the track. The stopper engages with the leading bottle to prevent its accidental removal through the front end. The gate mechanism blocks the pathway at a position between the front and rear ends of the track.

Abstract: A nut feeding method and apparatus for an automatic assembly machine includes a carrousel for carrying a large supply of nuts on vertical feed rods hanging from a rotating head from which the nuts can be fed to a nut runner. A shaft projects on an axis of rotation from the rotating head, and a drive mechanism rotates the shaft to rotate the carrousel about the axis of rotation. The body of the apparatus has a sliding surface adjacent the lower end of the rods around which a lower nut on each rod slides in a circular path as the carrousel rotates. A nut on one of the rods can pass through an opening, when selectively uncovered by a movable plug, in the sliding surface at one radial position on the circular path for feeding to the nut runner. A nut channel beneath and communicating with the opening conveys the nut to a nut loading station. An air cylinder moves a nut feed pin to feed the nut to the nut driver socket in the nut driver.

Abstract: The system includes a buffer magazine connected to each riveting machine and comprising a bundle of tubes, each of which contains a certain amount of preoriented rivets or like fasteners deliverable one-by-one to the riveting machine, and a stationary main feed station for supplying all of the buffer magazines with rivets. Each buffer magazine contains the entire inventory of rivets used by the riveting machine and quickly satisfies any request for rivets from the riveting machine. The floor-mounted main feed station is activated when the level of rivets in a tube of a buffer reaches a minimum level.

Abstract: A device for delivery of fasteners having heads with tenons disposed beneath the heads to an insertion tool. The device includes a sloped track with two spaced-apart rails each having a fastener receiving surface to receive the undersides of the heads of the fasteners falling thereon. The fasteners drop onto the track from a rotating barrel and some are correctly aligned with the tenons between the rails and the undersides of the heads resting on the rails and many are misaligned. The fasteners slide to an orienting station which includes a plurality of fluid injector ports disposed around the track. Two of the ports face each other and a third port is disposed over the track. Blasts of air are directed through the ports sequentially so that misaligned fasteners on the track are forced into alignment or are removed from the track thereby leaving only properly aligned fasteners to proceed.

Abstract: It is an object to provide an arrangement wherein a parts feeding member and a parts receiving member are provided each with a magnet, characterized in that the front end of a part is prevented from being magnetized to preclude magnetic repulsion problems in the feeding and receiving of parts.The polarity of the magnet associated with the feeding member is selected to control the magnetic lines so that they pass through only a portion of the part.

Abstract: In order to feed parts at high reliability without malfunction, by accurately positioning the parts on the axial line of a feed rod, when feeding parts by means of a retractable feed rod, a feed member making retractable, circular and parallel motions is disposed at the end portion of a parts feed pipe, and the feed member is provided with an element for holding the parts at a specific position, while the feed rod is provided with a device for holding the parts.

Abstract: An automatic fastener feeder is disclosed utilizing a rotating drum in combination with a pivoting track arrangement. Racheting apparatus is utilized to rotate the drum at intervals of time, which is initiated by an operator-generated demand for a single fastener. Gravity is utilized to drop individual fasteners onto and into the track arrangement. Up-and-down movement of the track arrangement provides for the axial movement of individual fasteners along the length of the track and into an escapement mechanism attached to the end thereof.

Abstract: Apparatus for feeding tacks to a heel lasting machine has one or more slideways which deliver series of successive tacks from discrete receptacles to selected axially parallel flutes in the peripheral surface of a rotor in such a way that the shanks of the tacks enter the flutes and the heads of the tacks overlie the upper side of the rotor. The peripheral surface of the rotor is surrounded by the internal surface of a stationary housing which has a set of pockets for reception of entire tacks from the rotor. The transfer of tacks from the rotor into the pockets of the housing is effected pneumatically, and the conveying of tacks from the pockets into the lasting machine takes place by gravity and/or pneumatically. The apparatus has a discrete stop for the discharge end of each slideway; such stop or stops can be actuated to bias the head of the adjacent tack against the upper side of the respective slideway and to thus interrupt the delivery of tacks from the respective receptacle to the rotor.

Abstract: Bulk nails from a single outlet track of a vibrating feedbowl are selectively diverted into a plurality of nail tracks. During each nailing operation of a pallet-making machine, one nail from each track is picked from the track and delivered to a nail-driving chuck. The presence of nails in the track is sensed, and the selective filling of the tracks is based upon the presence or absence of nails in the individual tracks.

Abstract: An apparatus for feeding headed pins includes a frame having thereon a hopper into which the pins are placed. A ramp extends substantially horizontally from the hopper and has a plurality of spaced, parallel slots therein which are adapted to receive the pins with the heads of the pins seated on the surface of the ramp. At the end of the ramp is a transfer shuttle assembly which is adapted to feed pins from the slots into passages in a chute which extends vertically downwardly from the end of the ramp. The upper ends of the passages are offset from the ends of the slots. The shuttle transfer means includes a shuttle plate movable back and forth across the end of the ramp by means of pneumatic cylinders, and a plurality of gates mounted on the shuttle plate. Each gate has a notch in its end which can receive a pin.

Abstract: A mechanism, for delivering two different kinds of fastener elements to a fastener-assembling apparatus, comprises a pair of hoppers for containing the two different fastener elements separately, and a pair of pick-up plates pivotally and vertically movable in the respective hoppers for picking up the fastener elements therein to deliver the same to a pair of separate chutes. The two pick-up plates are driven by a single drive, such as an air-cylinder or oil-cylinder.

Abstract: An apparatus for arranging and supplying screws comprising a trackway for aligning a plurality of screws, a conveyor for receiving aligned screws from said trackway, conveying them to a point of use and a regulator device for allowing only one screw at a time to be conveyed to the point of use of the screw.

Abstract: A parison handling assembly receives tubular plastic parisons from a random bulk storage, orients the parisons, and feeds the parisons in a controlled manner to one or more blow molding machines. Parisons are stored in the random bulk storage and fed at a controlled rate by a metering apparatus to a parison orienter which orients the parisons into a closely grouped arrangement wherein the parisons are both upright and side-by-side. The parisons are fed from the parison orienter to a parison escapement mechanism which holds the parisons temporarily. The escapement mechanism is actuated to release parisons into a parison transporter depending on the production demands of the individual blow-molding machines. Released parisons, from the parison escapement mechanism, move along the parison transporter to be pushed axially into stuffer tubes. The stuffer tubes hold the parisons in properly oriented, end-to-end relationship for delivery to the actual loading station of the blow-molding machine.

Abstract: Randomly oriented screws are deposited onto two horizontally spaced endless belts and are advanced toward a track located adjacent the ends of the upper runs of the belts. As the screws are advanced, the belts are vibrated vertically to shake the screws to properly oriented positions in which the screws hang by their necks from the belts with their shanks located between the belts. Vibration of the belts is effected by means of lugs formed on the inner sides of the belts and operable to flex the belts upwardly and downwardly as the lugs pass across pulleys which support and guide the belts. Also disclosed is a clearing wheel for flinging any improperly oriented fasteners from the track, the clearing wheel being constructed from a series of face-to-face discs made of comparatively soft urethane or the like.

Abstract: A pot-shaped vibratory conveyor discharges small objects along a circular path successively into an outlet which is directly connected with the inlet of a gap between two parallel confronting belt portions extending tangentially to the circular path so that the objects are singly transported by the belt portions, and can be counted by a photoelectric sensor before being collected in a container from which they are discharged when a predetermined number of objects is collected. The containers of several units can be simultaneously opened to discharge the objects into the same bag when the containers of different units contain selected numbers of different objects.