Patent ID: 8602068

Claim:
An apparatus for dispensing a charge of moist smokeless tobacco (MST), said apparatus comprising: a rotary metering device, said rotary metering device comprising: a rotatable lower disk, said lower disk comprising a plurality of through openings; a rotatable metering disk comprising a plurality of through openings aligned with the plurality of through openings in the lower disk so as to define a plurality of cavities; pins mounted in the through openings of the lower disk and extending into the through openings of the metering disk, said pins having an upper screen defining bottoms of the plurality of cavities within the metering disk; a vacuum source supplying a vacuum force to the cavities during loading of the cavities; a reservoir above the metering disk supplying MST to the cavities during loading of the cavities; an air discharge mechanism applying a blast of compressed air to each of the cavities when at a discharge station to eject a charge of MST therefrom; and an overlying feed tube positioned at a discharge station, the overlying feed tube comprising at least one pressure release hole and a rotatable closure ring having an aperture operable to adjust a size of an opening and closure of the at least one pressure release hole, wherein the feed tube delivers the charge of MST from a cavity in the rotary metering device to a pouching apparatus.