Material or article handling – Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into – within,... – Unstacking apparatus
Patent
1989-08-24
1990-10-16
Spar, Robert J.
Material or article handling
Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into, within,...
Unstacking apparatus
221 36, 221221, 4147958, B65G 5906
Patent
active
049630725
ABSTRACT:
A feeder for shape unstable articles such as pads for absorbing body fluids has an upright hopper having top and bottom openings for receiving and discharging pads. First and second rotationally driven upper pulleys having a plurality of round belt receiving grooves in their peripheries are mounted adjacent the bottom opening of the hopper on opposite sides of the vertical center line of the hopper. Third and fourth idler pulleys are arranged in laterally spaced apart relationship and symmetrical to the center line of the hopper at a lower level than the first and second pulleys. Because the lower pulleys are closer to each other than the upper pulleys, the belts converge toward each other such that articles which settle out of the hopper finally become wedged between the belts proximate to the lower pulleys. A stepping motor is energized to drive the pulleys and translate the belts so that the lowermost article in the stack is dispensed from between the lower pair of pulleys by reason of being frictionally engaged at its edges by the belts on the grooved pulleys. The stepping motor is started at the moment a pad should be dispensed and is stopped in response to the pad dropping across the beam of a photosensor so the feeder is self-timing. Thus, the feeder is self-adjusting for each individual article ranging from a short feed time for a compressed article to a longer feed time for the next article which may not be compressed and, hence, thicker.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2695125 (1954-11-01), Bowen
patent: 3376969 (1968-04-01), Baker et al.
patent: 3691942 (1972-09-01), Wagley
patent: 3825192 (1974-07-01), Knight
patent: 4050467 (1977-09-01), Van Sluis et al.
McGuire Daniel J.
Miley Guy M.
Curt G. Joa, Inc.
Slavin Craig
Spar Robert J.
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