Patent ID: 7004353

Claim:
A counting and feeding apparatus for counting small articles such as solid medication or food articles and feeding the small articles successively by a predetermined number into a container such as a packaging container or a packaging bag or to a packaging mechanism section, characterized in that it comprises: a transport drum for holding with a suction, the small articles on an outer peripheral surface thereof and rotating at a predetermined speed to transport the small articles; feeding means for feeding the small articles to the outer peripheral surface of said transport drum, said feeding means including a vibration feeder for feeding the small articles at random; a communication member having a plurality of communication paths formed thereon, said communication member being connected at a first end thereof to said vibration feeder while a second end of said communication member is positioned in the proximity of the outer peripheral surface of said transport drum, said communication member being disposed in a downwardly inclined relationship from the first end to the second end thereof; and a feed roller disposed in the proximity of an upper face of the second end of said communication member and rotating at a predetermined speed, said vibration feeder successively feeding the small articles into the communication paths of said communication member and moving the small articles from the first end to the second end of said communication member in said communication paths, and said feed roller feeding the small articles at a predetermined speed from said communication paths onto the surface of said transport drum; and temporary reservation means for accepting and reserving the small articles from said transport drum and feeding the small articles to the container or packaging mechanism section, said feeding means feeding the small articles intermittently and successively in a plural number onto the outer peripheral surface of said transport drum so that the small articles are held by suction to the outer peripheral surface of said transport drum such that a plurality of rows of the small articles aligned along a circumferential direction of said drum are formed on the outer peripheral surface of said transport drum and then the small articles are transported by rotation of said transport drum, whereafter one of the small articles is thrown from each of the rows of the small articles into said temporary reservation means at a predetermined transport position, the series of operations being repeated to count the small articles successively in a unit of the number of rows of the small articles until a predetermined number of small articles are reserved by said temporary reservation means, the reserved small articles being fed into the container or packaging mechanism section.