Vibratory bowl feeder

Claim 1

In a vibratory feeder having a bowl for objects to be fed and means for vibrating said bowl, an improvement facilitating the feeding of generally cylindrical objects having an axial length approximately the same as their diameter, said improvement comprising: a. a pathway beginning in the bottom region of said bowl and leading in a helix around the perimeter of said bowl to an upper region; b. a discharge passageway in the region of the upper end of said pathway; c. the surface forming said pathway being configured generally as an uninterrupted trough continuously walled on each side and shaped up from said bottom region of said bowl and having a generally uniform cross section above said bottom region of said bowl; d. the bottom of said trough surface being curved in said cross section on a relatively small radius; e. regions of said trough surface above said trough bottom being curved in said cross section on increasingly larger radii; f. the top regions of said trough surface being curved to approach plane surfaces; and g. said trough surface iS dimensioned relative to said objects so said objects have a stable, three point contact with said trough surface only when oriented in axial alignment with said trough, and said objects have an unstable contact with said trough surface in any orientation other than said axial alignment with said trough.