Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention presented herein is a rotary feeder
for feeding articles from a bulk storage to an orienting
take away unit. The feed bowl is provided with a
conically shaped bottom surrounded by upwardly extending
side walls in communication with the bowl bottom. The
side walls from an included angle of at least ninety
degrees with the base or bottom of the bowl.
Article feeders using a rotary bowl for holding
parts to be fed are known. One such feeder uses a bowl
having vertical side walls and a stationary ramp to move
articles out of the bowl. Once out of the bowl the
articles are moved across a planar surface by
centrifugal force for ultimate distribution from an
escapement device. The centrifugal forces necessary to
move articles in this typeQ of feeder is not
advantageous due to the resultant erratic behavior of
the articles when subjected to rotational speeds of the
feeder sufficiently high to generate adequate
centrifugal force to provide transport of the articles
to be fed.
SUMMARY QF THE INVENTION
According to an aspect of the invention, a rotary
article feeder comprises:
a rotary bowl having a conical bottom converging
upwardly from a circular base periphery planar with the
horizon into an apex and having a frusto-conical
sidewall diverging upwardly from the circular base into
a circular opening and having a truncated conical
transporting rim extending radially outwardly and
downwardly from the circular opening, wherein the angle
between the conical bottom and the frusto-conical
sidewall is approximately 90 and the truncated conical
rim is non-planar with the horizon and at an angle less
than 270 with the frusto-conical sidewall;
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an inclined stationary article removal ramp within
the bowl having a bottom article sweeping end shaped to
sweep articles upwardly from the conical bottom and
having an article feeding side adjacent to the frusto-
conical sidewall shaped to feed articles upwardly alongthe ramp in contact with the frusto-conical sidewall and
having a top transition end at the circular opening
shaped to receive and slide articles downwardly and
outwardly onto the truncated conical rim; and
a stationary spiral article guide means for guiding
articles riding on the truncated conical rim to a
discharge opening formed by opposite ends of the spiral
guide means.
According to another aspect of the invention, a
rotary article feeder comprises:
a rotary bowl having a conical or frusto-conical or
frusto-conically faceted base converging upwardly from a
circular base periphery to an apex and having a frusto-
conical sidewall diverging upwardly from the circular
base to a circular opening and having a truncated
conical transporting rim extending radially outwardly
and downwardly from the circular opening;
an inclined stationary article removal ramp within
the bowl having a bottom end shaped to sweep articles
upwardly from the bowl base, the ramp being shaped to
feed articles upwardly in contact with the frusto-
conical sidewall and having a top transition end at the
circular opening shaped to receive and slide articles
outwardly onto the truncated conical rim.
The article feeder disclosed herein accomplishes a
smooth, controlled feed without detrimental article
mishandling sometimes found in bowl feeders having
higher rotational speeds.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES
The essence of this invention will be clearly
apparent from a perusal of the following description
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2 b
when read in conjunction with the drawing figures
wherein:
Figure 1 is a top view of the rotary feeder bowl;
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Figure 2 is a cross section through plan 2-2 of figure 1;
Figure 3 is a perspective view of a portion of the bowl
and the ramp therein;
Figure 4 is a cross section of a bowl showing multiple
conical elements therein.
Figure 5 is an alternative bowl configuration shown in
cross-section.
Figure 6 is an alternative bowl configuration in broken
lines showing a conical insert.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Turning first to Figures 1 and 2 the operative parts of
the invention can clearly be seen. The rotary feeder,
generally 10, comprises an article receiving means 12 which
may be a container or bowl for receiving articles to be
nandled from a hopper 14 or other bulk storage means. The
article receiving means has a substantial conical base or
surface portion 16 which, at the periphery of the base of the
cone, is associated with an inclined wall 20 extending
2U upwardly from the base of the cone. In a preferred embodiment
tne angle between the cone surface and the inclined side wall
will be ninety degrees but as will be explained later this
angle could be more that ninety degrees.
The article receiving means houses an article selection
means Z or take away ramp. The ramp 22 is configured to
provide a means or path allowing articles in the bowl 12 to be
removed therefrom and positioned on a transport means 24 which
may be the rim or lip of the bowl.
The take away ramp is attached to a beam 26 and held
stationary in the bowl 12 primarily adjacent to inclined wall
20 along the ramp's most outboard edge 30. The entry and 32
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of tne ramp 22 is adjacent the surface 16 of the conical base
while terminating at a discharge means 34 at a relatively
nigher elevation. The ramp discharge means 34 is adjacent the
rim 24 of the bowl 12 so that articles transported up the ramp
22 may be deposited on the rim.
A preferred ramp 22 is shown in Figure 3.
In this figure, which is an enlarged portion of the
machine shown generally as 10, the bowl 12 can be seen with
the upwardly extending and outwardly angled wall portion 20
~ridging the space between the bowl surface and the rim 24 of
the bowl. This view clearly shows one embodiment of the ramp
22 attached by a bracket 36 to the cross beam 26.
The ramp 26 has the entry end 32 with tongue members such
as 40 whicn fit into groove members 42 in the bowl. The ramp
extends upwardly from the base 16 at a relatively steep angle
to a disc~arge section 44 which is angled downwardly so that
articles such as the discs, shown as 46, will be urged off the
discharge section of the ramp by gravity onto the rim 24.
The articles 46, once on the rim 24, will remain there and
travel on the rim 24 until the articles enter a chute S0 which
has an inner wall or fence 52 to guide the article off the rim
24.
Figure 4 is a simplified drawing of the bowl 12 of Figure
1 but having the conical center section made up of several
truncated cone sections 54 and 56 and a cone 58. The
truncated cones and the cone 58 are contemplated as having
different heights and wall angles, or any combination of
heignts and wall angles, such that pieces of different
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dimensions could be used in a generic bowl to give a desired
article flow throughout the bowl. For instance, the cone 58
could be more steeply sloped than the truncated cones 56 and
54 and each of the truncated cones could have different
slopes. One embodiment contemplated doesn't use the cone 58
at all but terminates at the truncation of an inserted cone.
figure 5 is a simplified embodiment of a bowl 60 similar
to the bowl 12 but having the rim portion generally
horizontal. Furthermore, this embodiment is used to show that
the angle 64, previously stated to be ninety degrees in a
preferred
embodiment could be more than ninety degrees as determined by
the exigencies of the parts being fed from the bowl and the
desired feeding characteristics.
figure 6 presents a simplified view of a bowl shown in a
pnantom line view with a cone 70 placed in the bowl and
2D attached to the bowl by a fastener such as 72. The cone is
contemplated to be removable so that a bowl could be run
either with or without the cone.
The operation of the rotary bowl feeder can be envisioned
by looking at Figures 1 and 3. In Figure 1 a plurality of
articles to be fed such as the discs 46 are supplied to the
bowl 12 from the hopper 14. The bowl is being rotated at a
low rotational speed, in a preferred embodiment between four
and twenty-five RPM. Discs being fed into the bowl will flow
down the surface of the cone, which is the bottom of the bowl
by gravity until they are adjacent the side wall of the bowl.
As the bowl rotates the articles will be picked up by the ramp
and will be urged up the ramp by back pressure provided by
subsequently picked up articles and/or the geometry of the
wall. Since the bowl wall extends outwardly, presenting an
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ever increasing radius of the bowl as the parts move upward on
the ramp, the peripheral speed seen by the article at its
point of contact witn the wall will be increasing. Parts of
artic1es will experience some acceleration as they move up and
out of the bowl. Since the ramp is at right angles to the
bowl wall gravity will help keep parts against the wall. It
may be well to point out at this point that it is contemplated
that the wall surface could be coated or formed with a
friction improving surface to assist the promotion of articles
up the ramp.
Once the articles reach the top of the ramp 34 they will
slide off the ramp onto the rim 24. A fence 74 will hold the
articles in position on the rim 24 although the downward
sloping profile of the rim allows gravity to move the articles
to the fence 74. The articles will be carried on the rim to
t~e chute 50 where the inner wall 52 of the chute will yuide
the articles across the rim to the next stage in the
transportation of the article.
In Figure 1 it can be seen that the fence 74 guides the
artic1es to the chute 50, along the way however, any articles
that are stacked upon another article are displaced by a wiper
76 which acts to singulate the stacked articles.
The foregoing description attempts to set forth the best
mode of carrying out the invention however, it is contemplated
that nuances of design differing in execution will be
encompassed Dy the following claims.
