Patent ID: 7837061

Claim:
An apparatus for dispensing pharmaceutical articles, the apparatus comprising: a) a housing defining: a hopper chamber to hold the articles; a dispensing channel fluidly connected to the hopper chamber, the dispensing channel having an inlet and an outlet and defining a flow path therebetween; a drive jet outlet; and an agitation outlet; and b) a gas source to provide a positive pressure supply gas flow, wherein the gas source is fluidly connected to each of the drive jet outlet and the agitation outlet to provide: a pressurized drive jet gas flow through the drive jet outlet to convey articles through the dispensing channel along the flow path; and a pressurized agitation gas flow through the agitation outlet to agitate articles in the hopper chamber; wherein the agitation gas flow has a greater mass flow rate than the drive jet gas flow; and wherein the apparatus is configured to generate the drive jet gas flow and the agitation gas flow simultaneously using the same gas source.