The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 24, 1994
Filed:
Nov. 16, 1992
William R Cole, Jr, Shelbyville, TN (US);
Joel D Clanton, Shelbyville, TN (US);
Ark, Inc., Shelbyville, TN (US);
Abstract
An automatic feeder for feeding workpieces of limp material one after another from a stack of workpieces, the feeder includes a moving support mechanism for supporting the stack, and a gripper located generally underneath the stack and the moving support mechanism. The gripper has a multiplicity of needles on it for gripping the bottom workpiece, and the support mechanism has an opening in it for exposing the bottom workpiece in the stack to the needles. A motor actuates relative motion between the support mechanism and the stack and the gripper and the stack such that the opening in the support mechanism and the gripper pass conjointly under the stack in a direction generally from one end of the stack to the other thereby to progressively present areas of the bottom workpiece over the opening. The needles of the gripper progressively and successively grip at least a portion of areas of the bottom workpiece as they are exposed to the needles over the opening in the support mechanism to peel the area of the bottom workpiece generally downwardly away from the stack. The gripper releases the area peeled away to separate the bottom workpiece from the stack.