Patent ID: 7422127

Claim:
A dispensing apparatus for dispensing a lid from a stack of lids each having a lid periphery, the apparatus comprising: a load platform having a main floor on which to place a stack of lids, the main floor sloping downward from an apex in a rearward direction, the load platform having a forward slope inclined downward from the apex in a forward direction; a parallelogram mechanism having a lower parallelogram portion, an upper parallelogram portion, and a pair of parallelogram wires connected between the lower parallelogram portion and the upper parallelogram portion to form a parallelogram and permit the lower parallelogram portion to move with respect to the upper parallelogram portion to change a shape of the parallelogram formed thereby, the parallelogram mechanism being mounted to move in a linear direction forward to a dispense position and rearward to a home position; and a hinge coupled to the upper parallelogram portion and having a rotatable handle with a distal end oriented upward and forward to contact an inner surface of a lid periphery of a bottommost lid of the stack of lids when the parallelogram mechanism moves forward from the home position toward the dispense position; wherein after the distal end of the handle of the hinge contacts the inner surface of the lid periphery of the bottommost lid, the upper parallelogram portion stops moving forward and the lower parallelogram portion continues moving forward to de-elevate the upper parallelogram portion and move the distal end of the handle of the hinge downward causing the bottommost lid to deformably move downward to the forward slope of the load platform to separate from the stack of lids for dispensing; and wherein the lower parallelogram portion of the parallelogram mechanism is slidably coupled with a plurality of carriage rods to move in the linear direction forward to the dispense position and rearward to the home position.