Patent ID: 8381947

Claim:
A bead feeder for serially delivering beads to a downstream location comprising: a bead supply wheel connected to rotate about a substantially vertical axis; the bead supply wheel including a bead supply bowl and a plurality of radially and outwardly extending bead passageways connected to rotate with the bowl and dimensioned to receive a single line of beads from the bowl; a plurality of discharge openings in the bead supply bowl spaced around a lower portion thereof with the openings in alignment with the radially and outwardly extending passageways; each of the passageways having an outer exit end; a metering plate connected to rotate about the same vertical axis as the bead supply wheel; the metering plate having a plurality of equally spaced apart openings directly below the outer exit ends of the passageways for receiving the lowermost beads in the passageways; the metering plate rotating at a slightly slower or slightly faster speed than the bead supply wheel so that vertical alignment of an outer exit end of a particular passageway and an opening in the metering plate only occurs once for each revolution of the bead supply wheel; a bead transfer point for removal of beads away from the metering plate; and a bead transfer wheel positioned below the bead transfer point and connected to rotate about a substantially horizontal axis, the transfer wheel having spaced apart exterior pockets on circumferential portions thereof for receiving the beads from the metering plate.