US Patent 7383937 Article feeder and spacer

A feeder for orienting and aligning disorderly incoming items includes a rotatable table having a peripheral wall and a discharge opening in the peripheral wall, the discharge opening allowing the items in a predetermined orientation to be successively withdrawn from the rotatable table in a single file line, the rotatable table being fed with disorderly items; a first carrier disposed proximate to the discharge opening, the first carrier recovering the oriented items exiting through the discharge opening; and an item spacer mounted proximate to the first carrier, the item spacer providing a predetermined spacing between two consecutive oriented items. It also relates to a method for doing same.