US Patent 11401114 Singulating and orienting objects for feeding

Objects in a stream in a duct are singulated and oriented by rotating at least some so that the orientations of all aligned. In one arrangement a slot is provided in the singulation duct into which the shank falls while the head remains in the singulation duct. In another arrangement there is provided a buffering device and a transfer member for transferring the singulated oriented objects from the buffering device to an operating location. In another arrangement a first path changes the orientation of relative to the second path. The objects can be fed from a singulation duct to a supply duct having an exit mouth lying on a rotation axis of the singulation duct.