Kirby-lester, Inc.

Itzhak Pinto

Rodney Lester

Barbara Lyn Perozek

John Francis Chessa

An object feeding, counting, and dispensing device is provided which includes a feeding funnel having a pathway having an entrance into which discrete objects are provided and an exit, an object sensing system at the exit of the pathway, a dispensing funnel having an upper opening into which the objects are gravity fed after passing through the object sensing system and a relatively smaller lower opening, a vibration system which substantially silently vibrates the dispensing funnel in a horizontal plane, and preferably not a vertical plane, and a display indicating the number of object counted. According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the vibration system includes a weight, a motor coupled to the dispensing funnel which eccentrically rotates the weight through XY plane such that rotation of the weight creates forces in X and Y directions, and a system which cancels the force in one of the X and Y directions.

Apparatus for feeding, counting and dispensing discrete objects

An object counter includes a feeding funnel having a frustroconical section, the narrow end of which is coupled to a substantially vertical feeding channel having a substantially rectangular cross section. A pair of linear optical sensor arrays are arranged along adjacent orthogonal sides of the feeding channel and a corresponding pair of collimated light sources are arranged along the opposite adjacent sides of the feeding channel such that each sensor in each array receives light the corresponding light source. Objects which are placed in the feeding funnel fall into the feeding channel and cast shadows on sensors in the arrays as they pass through the feeding channel. Outputs from each of the two linear optical arrays are processed separately, preferably according to various conservative criteria, and two object counts are thereby obtained. The higher of the two conservative counts is accepted as the accurate count and is displayed on a numeric display. In another embodiment, four sensor arrays and light sources are provided. The third and fourth sensor arrays and corresponding light sources are located downstream of the first and second arrays. The outputs of each of the sensor arrays are processed separately and the highest conservative count is accepted as the accurate count and is displayed on a numeric display.

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Roxbury, CT, United States of America

Itzhak Pinto