VIBRATORY BOWL FEEDER

• US 3,650,367 A
• Filed: 02/26/1970
• Issued: 03/21/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dennis E. Mead
• Original Assignee: Dennis E. Mead
• Inventors: Mead, Dennis E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wegbreit, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lane, H. S.
• Application Number:
  US05/014,347
• Time in Patent Office: 754 Days
• Field of Search: 198/33.1,DIG.12,22BA
• US Class Current: 198/383
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/1421 Vibratory movement

Abstract

A vibratory bowl feeder for cylindrical objects is improved by having an upwardly inclined trough that is uninterrupted and has a generally uniform cross section approximately in the shape of a conic section, preferably that of a parabola or hyperbola. Cylinders that are at least nearly as long as their diameters are accurately jiggled into end-to-end alignment in such trough without any jamming, mis-alignment, or rejection, and a single size trough can accommodate many sizes of cylinders.

Claims

1. In a vibratory feeder having a bowl for objects to be fed and means for vibrating said bowl, an improvement facilitating the feeding of generally cylindrical objects having an axial length approximately the same as their diameter, said improvement comprising:

a. a pathway beginning in the bottom region of said bowl and leading in a helix around the perimeter of said bowl to an upper region;

b. a discharge passageway in the region of the upper end of said pathway;

c. the surface forming said pathway being configured generally as an uninterrupted trough continuously walled on each side and shaped up from said bottom region of said bowl and having a generally uniform cross section above said bottom region of said bowl;

d. the bottom of said trough surface being curved in said cross section on a relatively small radius;

e. regions of said trough surface above said trough bottom being curved in said cross section on increasingly larger radii;

f. the top regions of said trough surface being curved to approach plane surfaces; and

g. said trough surface iS dimensioned relative to said objects so said objects have a stable, three point contact with said trough surface only when oriented in axial alignment with said trough, and said objects have an unstable contact with said trough surface in any orientation other than said axial alignment with said trough.

2. The feeder of claim 1 wherein said plane surfaces are disposed at an acute angle to each other.

3. The feeder of claim 1 wherein said plane surfaces are vertical and parallel.

4. The feeder of claim 1 wherein said plane surfaces are approximately perpendicular.

5. The feeder of claim 1 wherein said cross section of said trough surface is approximately parabolic in shape.

6. The feeder of claim 1 wherein said cross section of said trough surface is approximately hyperbolic in shape.

7. The feeder of claim 1 wherein said cross section of said trough surface is approximately a conic section in said bottom region and is approximately straight in said top regions.

8. The feeder of claim 1 wherein one side wall of said trough is cut away at said upper end of said pathway.

9. The feeder of claim 1 wherein said discharge passageway comprises a horizontally oriented bushing aligned with said pathway.

10. The feeder of claim 1 wherein said discharge passageway comprises a vertically oriented bushing communicating with said pathway.

11. The feeder of claim 10 including a diverting guide across said pathway beyond said bushing.