US2979201A

US2979201A - Grading articles by weight

Info

Publication number: US2979201A
Application number: US755645A
Authority: US
Inventors: Blake Minden Vaughan
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1958-08-18
Filing date: 1958-08-18
Publication date: 1961-04-11
Anticipated expiration: 1978-04-11

Description

April 11, 1961 M. v. BLAKE GRADING ARTICLES BY WEIGHT Filer} Aug. 18, 1958 4 Sheets-Sheet l V g I III! I! 0/ m A April 11, 1961 M. v. BLAKE GRADING ARTICLES BY WEIGHT Flled Aug. 18, 1958 April 11, 1961 M. V. BLAKE 2,979,201

GRADING ARTICLES BY WEIGHT Filed Aug. 18, 1958 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN NTOR n p vVAu HAN FAK q'huLuJ ATTVF April 11, 1961 M. v. BLAKE 2,979,201

GRADING ARTICLES BY WEIGHT Filed Aug. 18, 1958 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 MENTOR MHVDEIV VAU HAIV Bi -AWE BY MMQLW 2,979,201 lcg Patented A3l'.-11, 19.61

GRADING ARTICLES BY WEIGHT Minden Vaughan Blake, *Carnanton, Woodlands Road E,

Virginia Water, England Filed Aug. 18, 1958, Ser. No. 755,645

19 Claims. (Cl. 209-121).

This invention relates to apparatus for grading articles by Weight. As a particular example, the apparatus may be used for grading eggs but it will readily be apparent that it may be used for grading other articles the Weight or" which varies over a limited range.

According to this invention, apparatus for grading articles by weight comprises a beam pivoted about a horizontal axis and having a counterweight arranged to urge a downwardly-extending arm of the beam towards the end of a feed system, which feed system includes means for feeding articles singly into a releasable holder on that arm, a latch for holding the beam when the arm is swung into a position adjacent the feed system, means operative when an article has been fed into said holder to release the latch so that, due to the weight of the article, the downwardly-extending arm of the beam swings away from the feed system, and release means operative when the beam reaches the other extreme of its swing or shortly afterwards to release the article from the holder, the beam being arranged so that the centre of mass of the downwardly-extending arm and the article to be carried thereby is oif-set from the line through the centre of mass of the counterweight arm and pivot axis so that the extent of the swing and hence the point at which the article is dropped depends on the weight of the article. It will be seen with this arrangement that the article is fed into the holder and the weight of the article then causes the beam to swing. The extent of the swing depends on the weight of the article and hence the article is released at a point depending on its weight. After the release of the article, the downwardly-extending arm, under the action of the counterweight, swings back to the feed system for the next cycle of operation. Suitable guide systems may be provided in the region where articles may be released from the holder so that the articles are fed into separate containers or the like depending on where the articles are dropped thereby sorting the articles according to weight.

The aforementioned means for feeding articles singly into said holder may comprise a rotatable carrier controlled by an escapement mechanism which escapement mechanism is actuated by said arm as the latter approaches the end of the feed system so as to release the rotatable carrier for rotation under gravitational force due to an article or articles carried thereby.

Conveniently the escapement mechanism is gravityoperated so as to tend to rest in a position locking the rotatable carrier against further rotation.

The aforementioned rotatable carrier may be arranged, on rotation after release by the escapement, to feed an article into said holder on the downwardly-extending arm and then to release the aforementioned latch so as to permit the arm to swing away from the end of the feed system.

The rotatable carrier, which is preferably arranged for rotation about a horizontal axis, is preferably formed with four carrier arms evenly spaced around its axis and arranged so that it can be locked by the escapement in any of four equally spaced positions. The rotatable carrier can then be arranged with respect to the remainder of the feed systems so that it carries either one or two of the articles on arms lying in positions tending to rotate the carrier in the required direction, thereby ensuring that when an article has been fed on to the holder on the arm there is a second article on the rotatable carrier tending to rotate it to effect the release of the latch. This latch may conveniently be operated by cam surfaces on the-rotatable carrier;

The aforementioned feed system may, for articles which will roll, such as eggs, comprise a sloping runway arranged sloping downwardly to feed the articles to the rotatable carrier. In an egg-grader, this runway may comprise two parallel rails, preferably covered with resilient material such as rubber and spaced apart sufficiently that the eggs will roll down the rails towards the rotatable carrier. A gate may be provided in the runway operated by the rotatable carrier to release the articles one at a time onto the rotatable carrier.

The aforementioned holder may comprise two pairs of inwardly directed fingers arranged to form a cradle for the article, one of the pairs of fingers being pivotally mounted so as to be movable away from the other pair a suflicient distance to cause the article to drop when the article is to be released. This movement of the fingers may be effected by a pawl which on the forward swing of the arm, that is away from the feed system, rides over fixed abutments but engages one of these abutments as the main beam arm starts to swing back towards the end of the feed system.

The beam is preferably supported on knife edges. The mass and positioning of the counterweight will determine the extent of swing of the beam and this counterweight may be carried on an upwardly-extending arm of the beam which may be arranged at an angle with respect to the downwardly-extending arm. The counterweight may be adjustable in position on the upwardly-extending arm for setting up the apparatus. This counterweight preferably is made adjustable not only towards and away from the axis of rotation but also angularly about the axis of rotation. Suitable locking means may be provided to prevent any accidental movement of the counterweight.

The following is a description of one embodiment of the invention comprising an apparatus for grading eggs by weight, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of the apparatus;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the swinging beam of the apparatus of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the apparatus of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a view in side elevation of part of the apparatus of Figure 1, this view being to a larger scale than Figure 1 and showing the apparatus from the opposite side;

T Figure 5 is a plan View to a larger scale of the apparatus of Figure 4 looking in the direction of the arrow A;

Figure 6 is a section along the line 66 of Figure 5; 1

Figures 7 to 13 are diagrammatic illustrations for explaining the operation of the apparatus of Figures 1 to 6, the Figures 7 to 13 illustrating successive stages in the operation of the apparatus; and

Figures 14 and 15 illustrate the operation of a release mechanism.

Referringto Figures 1 to 6 of the drawings the apparatus has a base 10 which is provided with levelling indicators 11 and adjustable feet 12 for levelling purposes. On this base is arranged a sloping runway formed of Ltwo parallel metal rails 13, which rails are covered with rubber. The runway slopes downwardly at a small angle just suificient to allow eggs to roll down the runway. An

electric strip lamp 14 is mounted beneath the runway between the rails 13 for candling the eggs as they pass along the runway. Extending upwardly from the base near the lower end of the runway are a pair of supports 15 rigidly secured to the base and carrying at their upper ends bearing surfaces 16 for a pair of knife edges 17 which are mounted one on each side of a swingable beam 18. This beam, which is most clearly shown in Figure 2, is formed of a pair of angle section members 19 which are spaced apart and has, with respect to the pivot axis, a longer arm and a shorter arm. The longer arm is capable of swinging downwardly from a position in which it is about 45 to the vertical to a position just beyond the vertical. This latter position is shown in chain lines at 20 in Figure 1. The upper arm carries a counterweight 21 which is arranged so that when the lower arm is at the extreme limit of its swing just beyond the vertical, the counterweight is immediately above the pivot axis. This counterweight is mounted on a threaded rod 22 so as to be adjustable away from and towards the pivot axis of the knife edges 17. The outer end of this threaded rod 22 is supported by a member 23 movable transversely to the pivot axis by means of an adjusting screw 24, thereby enabling the axial direction of the threaded counterweightcarrying rod 22 to be adjustable angularly about the pivot axis. As will be apparent from the following description, the centre of mass of the downwardly-extending arm'of the beam 18 and the egg carried thereby has to be off-set from the plane through the pivot axis and the centre of mass of the counterweight 21 and counterweight arm. At the lower end of the downwardly-extending arm, the two angle section members 19 are turned inwardly towards one another to constitute a first pair of fingers 25 forming part of an egg-holder on the arm. Mounted on a shaft 26 pivoted in the two angle section members 19 for pivotal movement about an axis parallel to the pivot axis of the knife edges 17 are a further pair of fingers 27 which extend in a direction generally at right angles to their pivot axis and towards the inner ends of the first pair of fingers 25. The two fingers 27 are slightly curved and the four fingers 25, 27 together form a cradle suitable for carrying an egg, as indicated by the chain lines 28 in Figure 2, when the fingers 27 are in the position nearest the fingers 25. The pivoted fingers 27 are urged towards the fingers 25 by a light counterweight 30 and are normally held in that position by a spring-loaded catch 31. This catch is urged into a position engaging a cross member 32 between the two fingers 27 by means of a helical spring 33 around a shaft 34 on which the catch 31 is secured. This catch is mechanically coupled to a pawl 35 at one side of the downwardly-extending arm of the main beam 18, the catch 31 and pawl 35 both being mounted on the shaft 34. This pawl 35 is positioned to engage fixed abutments 36 on the base of the apparatus. As is most clearly shown in Figure 1 these abutments 36 are arranged so that as the downwardly-extending arm of the beam 18 swings away from the feed system constituted by the aforementioned runway, the pawl 35 rides over these abutments 36 and is not operated until the downwardlyextending arm of the beam 18 begins to swing back whereupon the pawl 35 will engage the first of the abutments 36 it meets and it will thus lift up and so release the catch 31. On release of the catch 31 the fingers 27 are now free to move and the weight of the egg on the fingers 25, 27 moves the pivoted pair of fingers 27 away from the other pair as shown in full linesin Figure 1, so that the egg drops down between the four fingers 25, 27. After the egg has been released, the counterweight 30 for the piovted fingers 27 moves these pivoted fingers towards the fingers 25 and, after the pawl 35 has moved clear of the abutments 36 on the backward swing of the main beam 18, the catch 31 returns under the action of its spring 33 to its normal position securing the four fingers 25, 27 together in the position forming a cradle for receiving the next egg.

The feed system for feeding eggs into the holder on the end' of the arm constituted by the four fingers 25, 27, comprises a rotatable carrier 40 which is most clearly illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. This rotatable carrier 40 is rotatable about a horizontal axis just below the lower end of the sloping runway 13 and comprises a shaft 41 from which extend four radial egg-carrying arms 42 which arms on rotation pass between the two rails 13 at thelower end of the runway, the arms 42 extending beyond the end of these rails. An escapement mechanism 44 is mounted on one of the fixed supports 15 which extend upwardly from the base to carry the beam knife edges 17, this escapement mechanism comprising a pivoted escapement member 45 co-operating with the four radial arms 46 secured on one end of the carrier shaft 41, the escapement member having a counterweight 47 formed by an upward extension of the escapement member 45 beyond its pivot axis tending to bring the escapement member 45 into position in the path of the ends of the arms 46, so preventing the rotatable carrier 40 from rotating in the direction in which it will be urged by the eggs coming down the runway. In Figure 4 the escapement'member 45 is shown in this position with a latching portion 48 engaging one of the arms 46. The escapement mechanism 44 is arranged so that the egg-carrying arms 42 of the rotatable carrier 40, which are mutually at right angles, are locked from further rotation at positions just before these arms have reached horizontal and vertical directions as shown in Figure 4. The counterweight 47 for the escapement mechanism 44 is positioned so that it is engaged by the downwardly-extending arm of the main beam 18 as the latter is swinging back towards the end of the runway so that the escapement is released just before this arm of the beam 18 reaches its uppermost position. As this arm of the beam 18 reaches its uppermost position adjacent the rotatable carrier 40, the two inwardly directed fingers 25 forming the fixed part of the cradle for the egg on the beam ride up a pair of spring-loaded fingers 50 forming latches mounted on the two arms 51 of a U-shaped member 52. This member 52 is pivoted about a horizontal axis through the base of the U by means of a shaft 53 extending between the aforementioned supports 15. The fingers 25 of the cradle press these spring-loaded latch fingers 50 downwardly until the cradle fingers 25 have passed over the ends of the latch fingers 50 which thereupon rise under the spring force to engage behind the cradle fingers 25 so thereby locking the main beam arm 18 against any return swing.

The two arms 51 of the U-shaped member are shaped as shown at 54in Figure 6 to engage cam surfaces 55 on the aforementioned shaft 41 carrying the rotatable carrier 40. Conveniently the two arms 51 of the U lie outside the two rails 13 of the runway as is most clearly seen in Figure 5. The cam surfaces 55 on the shaft 41 are shaped so that as the rotatable carrier 40 turns from the position in which it has been locked by the escapement after release, that is to say the position shown in Figure 4, the arms 51 of the U are dropped, so bringing the spring loaded latch fingers 50 out of engagement with the cradle fingers 25 permitting the main beam arm to swing down again. Further rotation of the rotatable carrier 40 brings the arms 51 of the U-shaped member 52 upwardly so that after the shaft 41 has turned through the spring loaded latch fingers 50 are ready to latch the main beam 18 on the next return swing. The operation is thus cyclic with four latching positions corresponding to the four egg carrying arms42 of the rotatable carrier 40, and the cam surfaces 55 on the shaft 41 are shaped to lift the arms 51 four times in each revolution of the shaft.

The operation of the apparatus thus far described is as follows: assuming that the main beam arm is held in a downwardly-extending position, an egg may be placed on the horizontal extending arm 42 of the rotatable carrier 40 which extends towards the swinging beam 18, that is to say the arm extending to the left in Figure 5. This position of the rotatable carrier 40 is illustrated diagrammatically in Figure 7 which shows an egg 65 on the horizontal extending arm 42 of the carrier. The carrier 40 is locked by the escapement 44 and a further egg 66 may be placed behind the next arm 42 of the carrier 40, that is the arm which is extending upwardly between the rails 13 of the runway. The next egg 67 on the sloping runway rails 13 is held back by a gate member 60 to be described later and does not afiect the operation of the apparatus at this stage. As shown in the drawings, the egg carrying arms 42 are shaped so that the horizontally extending arm remote from the runway curves upwardly slightly at its outer end to hold the egg securely. Further eggs may be loaded along the runway behind the egg 67. The eggs which are loaded initially into the apparatus would, of course, be candled before being put on. When the machine is operating the eggs would be loaded on the runway and would be examined as they passed along the runway over the candling lamp 14. After the apparatus has been initially loaded, the main beam arm is then allowed to swing upwardly as indicated by the arrow 68 in Figure 7 under the influence of its counterweight 21 and it will engage the escapement counterweight 47 as shown in Figure 8 so releasing the rotatable carrier 40 as shown in Figure 9. The carrier 44) will slowly start to move but, as the main beam arm is swinging upwardly, this arm will rapidly ride over the spring-loaded latch fingers 50 as shown in Figures 8 and 9 and, just beyond the position shown in Figure 9, will momentarily be latched before the carrier 40 has rotated appreciably. A buffer 49 is provided to take any impact. The subsequent rotation of the carrier 40 will firstly cause the horizontally extending arm 42 of the carrier carrying the egg to pass between the fingers of the cradle at the end of the beam 18 so depositing the egg in this cradle as shown in Figure 10 and will then (by the action of the cam surfaces 55) release the U-shaped member 52 as shown in Figures 10 and 11 so releasing the latch for the main beam arm. Under the weight of the egg in the cradle on the beam 18, which weight overcomes the effect of the counterweight 21, the beam arm will then swing downwardly as shown in Figures 10, ll, 12 and 13, the swing continuing to an extent depending on the weight of the egg and, immediately after it begins its return swing, the pawl 35 for the cradle catch 31 will be operated by the first of the fixed abutments 36 which it engages so releasing the egg at a position depending on the weight ofvthe egg. The fixed abutments 36 are illustrated in plan in Figure 14 and, together with the pawl 35 are shown in side elevation in Figure 15. In these figures, the beam moves from left to right in swinging away from the feed system and the pawl rides over the abutments while moving in this direction. As soon as the beam starts to swing back again however, the pawl 35 engages one of the abutments, the particular one engaged depending on the extent of the swing. The resultant movement of the pawl 35 releases the egg from the holder. The base of the apparatus in the region below the beam is provided with a padded surface 56 e.g. a baize covered surface which lies closely under the beam so that the egg drops only a short distance. This surface is provided with a number of ridges 57 defining guide channels and has a slope so that eggs dropped in different positions along the path of the lower end of the beam 18, that is eggs of different weights, will be fed into the separate guide channels and will roll down these channels into suitable receptacles 53. As the main beam arm swings upwardly under the influence of the counterweight 21 the cradle holder will be closed and locked by the catch 31 as previously described. In the meantime the next egg 66 on the carrier 49 has moved the carrier, under the weight of that egg, as shown in Figures 10, ll, 12 and 13, the carrier ultimately moving into the position corresponding to that shown in Figure 7 so that the egg 66 is on the horizontally extending arm and the carrier 6 The next egg 67 on the runway has rolled forward to bear against the next arm 42 of the carrier 40 which arm has now moved into the upward direction. The main beam arm swinging upwardly then releases the escapement 44 and the cycle operation is repeated.

In order to prevent any possibility of two eggs rollin into the region between a pair of arms 42 of the rotatable carrier 40, a gate is provided comprising a bell-crank shaped member 60 (see Figure 5) pivotally mounted between the runway rails 13 with the pivot axis 61 at the junction of the two arms of the member 60. This member 6%) has an upwardly directed gate arm which may be U-shaped as shown in Figures 3 and 5 serving'to hold back the line of eggs on the runway. The other arm 62 of this gate member extends over the ends of upwardly moving arms 42 of the rotatable carrier 40. The rotation of the carrier 4-0 thus lifts the arm 62 and so swings the gate arm downwardly as shown in Figure 12 to permit an egg to roll towards the carrier arm 42. The gate member 60 is arranged so that under the influence of gravity the gate arm is normally in its upper position so preventing the movement of eggs from the runway to the carrier 40 and it thus returns automatically to prevent the next egg 68 on the runway from affecting the operation of the apparatus.

The apparatus may be calibrated experimentally and the aforementioned abutments for releasing the cradle catch 31 are adjustably mounted on a member 70 so as to be adjustable along the line of swing of the main beam arm. For ensuring the release of particularly heavy eggs without excessive swing of the beam there may be provided a fixed abutment 71 which engages a further arm 72 mounted on the cradle operating shaft 3 5 so that, as the downwardly-extending beam arm swings just beyond the vertical, the catch 31 is released on the upward swing of the arm. As soon as the egg is dropped from the cradle on the beam arm, the counterweight 21 will rapidly stop any further outward movement causing the arm to swing back towards the feed system.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for grading articles by weight comprising a support, a beam pivoted on said support about a horizontal axis and having a downwardly extending arm and a counterweight arm, a releasable holder on said downwardly extending arm, a feed system positioned so that the counterweight arm urges said downwardly extending arm towards said feed system, which feed system includes means for feeding articles singly into said releasable holder, a latch for holding the beam when said downwardly extending arm is swung into a position adjacent the feed system, means operative when an article has been fed into said holder to release the latch so that due to the weight of the article the dowwnardly extending arm of the beam swings away from the feed system, and release means on said downwardly extending arm operative when the beam reaches the other extreme of its swing or shortly afterwards to release the article from said holder, the beam being arranged so that the center of mass of the downwardly extending arm and the article to be carried is at a point, in the plane of movement of the beam, which is off-set from a plane through the pivot axis and the center of mass of the counterweight arm so that the extent of swing and hence the point at which the article is dropped depends on the weight of the article.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein guide systems are provided in the region where articles are released from the holder so that articles are fed into separate containers depending on where the articles are dropped thereby sorting the articles according to weight.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for feeding articles singly into said holder comprises a rotatable carrier controlled by an escapement mechanism which escapement mechanism is actuated by said downwardly extending arm as the latter approaches is locked against further rotation by the escapement-44. 75 the end of the feed system so as to release the rotatable carrier for rotation under gravitational force due to the weight of an article carried thereby.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the escapement mechanism is gravity-operated so as to tend to rest in a position locking the rotatable carrier against further rotation.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the said rotatable carrier is arranged, on rotation after release by the escapement, to feed an article into said holder on the downwardly-extending arm and then to release said latch so as to permit the arm to swing away from the end of the feed system.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein said rotatable carrier is arranged for rotation about a horizontal axis.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein said rotatable carrier is formed with four carrier arms evenly spaced around its axis and arranged so that it can be locked by the escapement in any of four equally spaced positions.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein said rotatable carrier is arranged with respect to the remainder of the feed system so that it carries either one or two of the articles on arms lying in positions tending to rotate the carrier in the required direction to ensure that, when an article has been fed onto the holder on the arm, there is a second article on the rotatable carrier tending to rotate it to efiect release of the latch.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein said means operative to release the latch comprise cam surfaces on the rotatable carrier.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 and for use for grading articles which will roll, wherein said feed system comprises a sloping runway arranged to feed the articles to the rotatable carrier.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 10 and arranged as an egg grader, said runway comprising two parallel rails 'spaced apart sufficiently that the eggs will roll down the rails towards the rotatable carrier.

12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 10 wherein a gate is provided in the runway operated by the rotatable carrier to release the articles one at a time onto the rotatable carrier.

13. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said holder comprises two pairs of inwardly'directed fingers arranged to form a cradle for the article, one of the pairs of fingers being pivotally mounted so as to be movable away from the other pair a suflicient distance to cause the article to drop when the article is to be released.

14. Apparatus for grading articles by weight comprising a support, a beam pivoted on said support about a horizontal axis and having a downwardly extending arm and a counterweight arm, a releasable holder on said downwardly extending arm, which holder comprises two pairs of inwardly directed fingers arranged to form a cradle for the article, one of the pairs of fingers being pivotally mounted on said downwardly extending arm to be movable away from the other pair a sufiicient distance to cause the article to drop when the fingers are moved apart, a feed system positioned on said support with respect to said beam so that the counterweight arm urges said downwardly extending arm towards said feed system, which feed system includes means for feeding articles singly into said holder, a latch for holding the beam when said downwardly extending arm is swung into a position adjacent the feed system, means operative when an article has been fed into said holder to release the latch so that due to the weight of the article the downwardly extending arm of the beam swings away from the feed system, a set of fixed abutments on said support, a pawl on said downwardly extending arm operatively connected to said pivotally mounted pair of fingers arranged to ride over said fixed abutments as said downwardly extending arm swings away from the feed system but to engage one of these abutments as the arm starts to swing back towards the end of the feed system and thereby to move said pair of fingers to release the article from said holder, the beam being arranged so that the center of mass of the downwardly extending arm and the article to be carried is at a point, in the plane of movement of the beam, which is oflE-set from a plane through the pivot axis and the center of mass of the counterweight arm so that the extent of swing and hence the point at which the article is dropped depends on the weight of the article.

15. Apparatus for grading articles by weight comprising a support, a beam pivoted on said support about a horizontal axis and having a downwardly extending arm and an upwardly extending arm, a counterweight on said upwardly extending arm, a releasable holder on said downwardly extending arm, a feed system positioned on said support with respect to said beam so that said counterweight urges said downwardly extending arm towards said feed system, which feed system includes means for feeding articles singly into said holder, a latch for holding the beam when said downwardly extending arm is swung into a position adjacent the feed system, means operative when an article has been fed into said holder to release the latch so that due to the weight of the article the downwardly extending arm of the beam swings away from the feed system, and release means on said downwardly extending arm operative when the beam reaches the other extreme of its swing or shortly afterwards to release the article from said holder, the beam being arranged so that the center of mass of the downwardly extending arm and the article to be carried is at a point, in they plane of movement of the beam, which is elf-set from a plane through the pivot axis and the center of mass of the counterweight and counterweight arm so that the extent of swing and hence the point at which the article is dropped depends on the weight of the article.

16. Apparatus as claimed in claim 15 wherein adjustable mounting means for the counterweight are provided on said counterweight arm for adjusting the position of the counterweight towards and away from said horizontal axis and angularly about said horizontal axis.

17. Apparatus as claimed in claim 16 wherein locking means are provided to prevent any accidental movement of the counterweight relative to said beam.

18. Apparatus for grading articles by weight comprising a support, a beam pivotally mounted on said support for swinging about a horizontal axis, said beam having a holder for an article and also having a counterweight to urge the beam to a loading position when the holder is empty, the counterweight being such that the weight of the article when loaded into the holder moves the beam away from the loading position, a feeder on said support for feeding articles singly into said holder, a latch operative to latch the beam when it swings to the loading position, means operative when an article has been fed into said holder to release the latch, and release means on said beam operative, when the beam has swung away from said loading position and starts to swing back, to release the article from said holder.

19. Apparatus as claimed in claim 18 wherein said holder comprises a plurality of fingers forming a cradle, at least one pair of fingers being movable to allow an article to fall out of the holder, and wherein said release means comprises a pawl operatively connected to the movable fingers and wherein cooperating fixed abutments are provided on said support, the pawl being arranged to ride over said fixed abutments as said beam swings away from the loading position but to engage one of the abutments as the beam starts to swing back towards the loading position and thereby to move said movable fingers to release the article from the holder.

Swartz May 30, 1939 Hill June 1, 1948