Filler apparatus with hopper and rotary feed mechanism for dispensing controlled volumes of materials

Claim 1

A filler apparatus of the type comprising a vertical hopper and a rotary feed mechanism for dispensing controlled volumes of material into containers through an opening at the bottom of the hopper, said feed mechanism including a driven member and a driving member operated by a prime mover, rotary contrOl means for selectively engaging and disengaging said driving member with said driven member to start and stop the dispensing of materials from the hopper, and control means for controlling the number of revolutions of the driven member by causing said rotary control means to disengage said driving means from said driven means when said driven means has rotated through a predetermined number of revolutions, said control means including electro-optical signal generating means directly connected to said driven member for generating a series of digital signals proportional to the amount of rotation of said driven member, counter means to count the number of digital signals generated, and count responsive control means connected to be responsive to a preset count by said counter means to generate a signal to operate said rotary control means to disengage the driving member from the driven member when a preset count has been reached.