A
filling machine for feather material, comprising a hopper, means defining a delivery exit for delivering feather material from said hopper, feed blade means associated with said hopper and said delivery exit means for feeding feather material outwardly of said hopper through said delivery exit means, a measuring device, means defining a measuring receptacle associated with said measuring device for receiving feather material fed outwardly of said hopper, a delivery nozzle, and transfer means for transferring feather material from said measuring receptacle to said delivery nozzle.
The operation of the
filling machine may now be described. After bin 11 has been filled with feather material, motors 18 and 27 are operated to fill hopper 13. Feather material is sucked from bin 11 by blower 17 and filling of hopper 13 with feather material which settles in the hopper is aided by the suction in the hopper from supplementary blower 26. During the filling of the hopper, shutter 23 is rotated to a closed position, although the use of the shutter assembly is not considered mandatory. After hopper 13 has been filled, motors 18 and 27 are shut off and the hopper is not again refilled until the feather material therein has been used up.
In producing an article having a plurality of individual pockets, a measured amount of down must be supplied to each pocket. Because of the tendency of bulk down and feathers to stick together, great difficulty has been encountered in measuring the requisite quantity of material to be supplied to each pocket. The quantity supplied must be sufficient to give the article the desired bulk of fluffiness and to give the article the desired warmth if it is an article designed for warmth. Over- filling a pocket results in a waste of material and adds to an increase in cost.
A
filling machine as claimed in claim 1 and further including a delivery system for supplying feather material to said hopper, including a storage container, blower means for withdrawing feather material from said storage container and delivering it to said hopper and means defining a vacuum system associated with said hopper for drawing feather material into said hopper.
