Patent ID: 8827113

Claim:
An apparatus for dispensing articles, the apparatus comprising: 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; and an agitation outlet; a gas source to provide a positive pressure supply gas flow having a first pressure, a first velocity and a first mass flow rate; a drive mechanism to convey articles through the dispensing channel along the flow path; and an agitation jet device interposed and fluidly connected between the gas source and the agitation outlet, the agitation jet device including a feed opening to receive the supply gas flow and a jet opening to convert the supply gas flow to a pressurized agitation gas flow through the agitation outlet to agitate articles in the hopper chamber, wherein the agitation gas flow includes a supplemental gas flow that mixes with the supply gas flow, absorbs energy from the supply gas flow, and joins the supply gas flow to provide the agitation gas flow, the agitation gas flow having a second pressure less than the first pressure, a second velocity greater than the first velocity, and a second mass flow rate greater than the first mass flow rate.