Patent ID: 6467609
Filing Date: 2002-10-22
Classification: B41F

Abstract:
Apparatus for conveying containers comprising:first and second continuous motion transfer conveyors, said first and second conveyors being rotatable about respective generally parallel and laterally spaced first and second axes, said conveyors being so sized and their axes being so placed that radially outer portions of the first and second conveyors overlap in axially spaced relationship as said conveyors rotate past each other about their respective axes; the first and second conveyors having respective surfaces in opposed relationship to each other in the region where the first and second conveyors overlap; a continuous motion mandrel carrier rotatable about a third axis spaced from the first axis, the first and third axes being so positioned and the mandrel carrier and the first conveyor being of such shape and size and so placed that containers are transferred from the mandrel carrier onto a single circular path on the surface of the first conveyor; a first mechanism associated with said first conveyor that is operable to apply an attractive force to hold containers transferred from the mandrel carrier to the circular-path on the surface of the first conveyor; the surface of the second conveyor including concentric first and second tracks formed around the second axis; the circular path on the surface of the first conveyor, the first and second tracks on the second conveyor being so located that the circular path is tangent only to the first track on the second conveyor as the first and second conveyors rotate; a plurality of first container supports positioned to receive alternating ones of the containers transferred to the circular path on the first conveyor from the mandrel carrier, whereby the containers not received by the plurality of first container supports constitute a first plurality of containers transferred from the mandrel carrier, and the containers received by the plurality of first container supports constitute a second plurality of containers transferred from the mandrel carrier; each of said first container supports being operable to move the container supported thereby from the circular path along a second path on the surface of the first conveyor which becomes tangent to the second track on the surface of the second conveyor as the first and second conveyors rotate; the first conveyor being operative: to discontinue the attractive force applied by the first mechanism to each of said first plurality of containers at substantially the time they reach respective points of tangency with the first track on the second conveyor, thereby to release said first plurality of containers onto said first track; and to discontinue the attractive force applied by the first mechanism to each of said second plurality of containers at substantially the time they reach respective points of tangency with the second track on the second conveyor, thereby to release said second plurality of containers onto said second track; a second mechanism associated with said second conveyor that is operable to apply attractive forces to hold containers transferred onto the first and second tracks on the second conveyor from the first conveyor; and a continuous motion belt conveyor including a flight section movable to convey containers away from the second conveyor, the flight section being positioned to receive containers from the second conveyor at a location downstream in the rotation of the second conveyor from the region where the first and second conveyors overlap, and so positioned that the first and second plurality of containers are transferred onto the belt conveyor in two transversely spaced parallel lines.