Patent ID: 8147169

Claim:
Apparatus for extracting and delivering articles in charges of a predetermined uniform size from a mass of the articles comprising: a. a vacuum implement adapted for picking up articles in charges of a predetermined size from the mass of the articles and depositing the charges at a selected location comprising a head at the forward end thereof for receiving a charge of the articles, the implement head having a mouth at a forward end thereof, an article-collecting chamber extending rearwardly from the mouth to a rearward end of the chamber, the chamber being of a size to hold a charge of the predetermined size, a vent at the rearward end of the article-collecting chamber and an air permeable barrier over the vent, the barrier having openings small enough to preclude passage through the vent of the articles, b. at least one vacuum generator; c. a conduit exterior to the implement chamber that extends from the vent of the chamber to the vacuum generator and provides air flow communication between the chamber and the vacuum generator; d. means for relieving the vacuum in the chamber to cause an article charge in the implement to drop from the mouth of the chamber; e. a receptacle at the selected location for receiving the charge, the receptacle being adapted to receive the charge drawn from the implement mouth when the implement switched to a discharge configuration; f. a container operably associated with the implement for picking up articles held in the container, the container having an opening into the interior thereof of a size and configuration to permit access of the mouth of the implement to the interior of the container and having an interior with an article mass reservoir below the opening and extending downwardly toward the bottom of the container, the reservoir of a size to hold a quantity of articles in a mass to provide a multiplicity of the charges; g. means for supporting the implement and adapted to support the implement with the head downward into the container interior with the implement mouth facing downward, to hold the mouth at the surface of a mass of articles placed in the reservoir, during the collection of each charge, and to move the charged implement to a discharge location above the receptacle for the discharge to the receptacle of each charge, the receptacle being positioned at a site spaced from the surface of the mass of articles in the receptacle; and h. means at the head of the implement for stirring articles at the upper surface of a mass of the articles held in the container reservoir, in the vicinity of the mouth of the implement head, and means for moving the implement head relative to the surface of the mass, in a direction across the surface, whereby to cause the stirring means to agitate the surface articles for pick up by the mouth of the implement.