Patent ID: 7730608

Claim:
A hinge feeder for sequentially opening and orienting pin-jointed butt hinges each hinge, having a pinhead at the top thereof, and for delivering the opened and oriented hinges to a receiver at a predetermined orientation with the top of each hinge at the same selected end of the hinge, comprising: a. a pathway for transporting hinges from a dispenser, the pathway extends from the dispenser in a downstream direction to a receiver; b. a dispenser adapted to hold a stack of closed hinges, to position the lower-most hinge in the stack with the end margins thereof at a uniform orientation except for the location of the top of the hinge, the top being, variably, at one or the other end of the hinge, and to sequentially dispense the lower-most from the stack and along the pathway at the uniform orientation; c. a sensor located and adapted for sensing the position of the pinhead at the top of a folded hinge when the hinge is at a sensing position along the pathway; d. a rotator on the pathway, at or downstream of the sensing position, for orienting hinges transported downstream along the pathway and wherein the rotator is adapted to rotate selected hinges, in response to the sensed position of the top of that hinge, to reverse the positions of the respective hinge ends; e. at least one leaf turner on the pathway at or downstream of the sensor adapted for opening hinges transported downstream along the pathway; and f. a receiver along the pathway downstream of the rotator and leaf turner adapted for receiving opened and oriented hinges in a stack.