Patent ID: 7950517

Claim:
A machine for orienting and aligning articles, of the type comprising: a plurality of orientation cavities distributed in a closed circuit and associated to a rotary structure, each orientation cavity having an inlet receiving articles and an open bottom for the passage of the articles, said rotary structure having a plurality of alignment conduits, each of which is arranged below a respective orientation cavity to receive an article falling therefrom; support means for temporarily supporting the articles in said orientation cavities and dropping them into the corresponding alignment conduits in at least one predetermined site of said closed circuit; support and/or stop elements in each of the orientation cavities configured to cooperate with parts of the article when the latter falls through the open bottom of the orientation cavity to confer a predetermined orientation to the article inside the alignment conduit; a receptacle for the accumulation of the articles on a bottom, said orientation cavities having their inlets arranged in an aligned manner in a perimetric ring surrounding said receptacle; and a rotating disk housed in said receptacle forming said bottom thereof, wherein: the rotating disk is inclined with respect to the plane of said perimetric ring; the rotating disk has a peripheral edge which, upon rotating, reaches an upper level slightly above said perimetric ring; the rotating disk is configured to drive, upon rotating, the articles which are located in the receptacle to said upper level and transfer them onto the perimetric ring; the rotating disk has a substantially planar inner region perpendicular to said inclined axis and a peripheral region adjacent to said peripheral edge forming a bevel with respect to said inner region; and the perimetric ring is substantially horizontal, the rotary structure is arranged to rotate about a vertical axis, and the rotating disk is arranged to rotate about an inclined axis forming an angle with respect to said vertical axis.