Patent ID: 7234611

Claim:
A dispensing apparatus for dispensing an article from a stack of articles each having a periphery, the apparatus comprising: an isolating device including one or more isolating members which are movable between a hold position spaced from the stack of articles, and a dispense position contacting the periphery of one or more articles in the stack and supporting the one or more articles including an adjacent article which is adjacent an endmost article while not contacting the periphery of the endmost article by the one or more isolating members, to isolate the endmost article from the other articles in the stack to permit the endmost article to be separated from the other articles and be dispensed; wherein the one or more isolating members in the dispense position contact the periphery of one article if the stack includes only one article which is the adjacent article in addition to the endmost article; and wherein the one or more isolating members in the dispense position contact the peripheries of at least two articles if the stack includes a plurality of articles including the adjacent article in addition to the endmost article.