Thin parts are, for example, waterproof rubber or the like to be waterproof stoppers of take-in openings for electric wires which are attached to terminals of electric wires and are provided to terminal housings. Mounting apparatuses that insert terminals of electric wires separately prepared by cutting out into the waterproof rubber so as to mount the waterproof rubber are prepared for such thin parts (waterproof rubber). The electric wires and the waterproof rubber as the thin parts are sequentially supplied to the mounting apparatuses, and a lot of electric wires which are inserted into the waterproof rubber are produced and are used for wiring works.
Waterproof rubber X as the thin part has various shapes according to thickness of electric wires and intended use. For example as shown in FIG. 14, the waterproof rubber X has an approximately cylindrical shape, and a hole H through which electric wires are inserted is pierced in the waterproof rubber X. A longitudinal center of the cylinder has a step portion P1, and both ends P2 and P3 have different thickness. A feeding device that takes out pieces of such waterproof rubber one by one so as to feed them is provided for the waterproof rubber, and thus, concretely the waterproof rubber is sequentially fed to the mounting apparatus for the electric wires, so that the electric wires are inserted into the waterproof rubber. Such thin parts include various ones having length of 7 mm and thickness of 5 mm and having length of 7 mm and thickness of 1.2 mm.
The conventional waterproof rubber feeding device is, for example as shown in FIG. 15, provided with a receiving portion 502 in a position where the waterproof rubber X, which is put into a rotating drum 500, is lifted by a blade portion 501 on a drum inner wall and then is dropped, can be received. A transporting device which is called as a feeder 503 which follows the receiving portion transports the waterproof rubber to a next step. The feeder 503 is the transporting device composed of a groove-shaped rail, and the waterproof rubber received by the groove of the rail is advanced by vibration so as to be fed.
In the above feeding device, excessive pieces of waterproof rubber are accumulated on the receiving portion, and thus the waterproof rubber is occasionally prevented from being fed to a next step. For this reason, there is Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-20115) by the applicant of the present invention which is filed in order to solve this problem. According to this, since a quantity of the waterproof rubber which is fed to the receiving portion can be adjusted suitably, the effect that the receiving portion is not blocked up is obtained.
Further, in Patent Document 2 (Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 02-8198), a chip part (thin part) which is fed from an air hopper drops onto a rail and enters a groove on the rail according to the part size. Excessively fed thin parts bump against the stopper and are collected to a parts pocket. The thin parts which enter the groove of the rail are adapted to be fed by applying slight vibration to the rail by means of a vibrator fixed under the rail.
In such a manner, the thin parts are received by the receiving portion and are transported to the feeder, but at this time the thin parts having the approximately cylindrical shape are stored in a groove of the feeder in an upright posture, and are transported sequentially. At this time, however, when the thin parts having top-bottom directional properties are fed to a next step, their vertical directions should be aligned. It is, therefore, necessary to remove thin parts whose direction is opposite to a desired direction from the feeder by means of a certain method and feed only thin parts which face the desired direction.
As mentioned above, in conventional methods, devices tend to be large because a space for dropping the thin parts onto the receiving portion is required, a space for again collecting thin parts which drop without being received by the receiving portion is required, or the thin parts should be lifted to a place where they are dropped. Further, when oil is applied to the thin parts (waterproof rubber), the feeding device is comparatively easily contaminated, and thus it should be suitably cleaned. It is, however, difficult to clean the conventional feeding devices due to their constitution. Further, when a difference in dimension between ends of the thin parts is small or discrimination between top and bottom portions is difficult, disadvantageously the thin parts are not fed due to their shapes. The thin parts (waterproof rubber) fed from the hopper to the feeder whose direction is opposite to a desired direction should be removed, and this is inefficient.