GB1322418A - Apparatus for depositing articles separately on a conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

1322418 Feeding articles singly from a shoot to a conveyer SIDEL SA 14 June 1971 [29 July 1970] 27799/71 Headings B8A and B8S Apparatus for feeding narrow-necked bottles 2 singly to a conveyer 15 comprises a vertical conduit 1 with a parallel screw 6 having a thread 9 of increasing pitch projecting through an aperture 3 into the path of the bottles 2. The screw 6 has two turns: an upper turn 9 of pitch h less than the height h 1 of the bottles 2 and a lower turn 11 of pitch H greater than the height h 1 of the bottles 2. As shown the screw 6 is driven by a motor 12 to regulate the delivery of the bottles 2 to the conveyer 15. The arrangement of the pitch h ensures that a lower bottle 2c supports an upper bottle 2b with clearance for the introduction of the upper end 13 of the screw 6 into the path of the upper bottle 2b. The pitch H ensures that the succeeding bottles 2 are separated and that there is adequate time for each bottle 2 to be cleared from the path of the lower turn 11 by the conveyer 15 when it is deposited thereon. In a modification (not shown) the screw 6 is free to rotate under the weight of the bottles 2, its output thus depending on the back-log. The operating characteristic of this modification may be further adjusted by a small motor or a friction brake (not shown).