Patent ID: 6093014
Filing Date: 2000-07-25
Classification: B29C,Y10S

Abstract:
In apparatus wherein a plastic blow molding machine is operated to make hollow containers which are formed in blow molds such that the containers have an axis and the containers are discharged onto a conveyor and fall by gravity onto the conveyor, for delivery to a trimming apparatus, the improvement which comprises:an endless moving conveyor which includes closely spaced hollow stem vacuum cups each having a concave gripping face,means for moving said endless conveyor in a path below the discharge of containers from said machine with said vacuum cup gripping faces oriented in a co-planar array in said path, andmeans for continually supplying a vacuum to the gripping faces of said vacuum cups through the hollow stems of said vacuum cups as they move into position for receiving said containers from said machine and thereafter moving to a conveyor container discharge station,a reach of said endless conveyor being positioned with respect to the containers as they are discharged such that said reach of the conveyor extends in a direction such that the axis of each container is transverse to the direction of movement of said conveyor and said reach of said conveyor is positioned horizontally with the gripping faces of said vacuum cups facing upwardly so that the vacuum cups grip and hold the sides of the plastic containers in the axial orientation imparted thereto by the associated blow molds as they are discharged onto said vacuum cups, and said containers are thereafter held by the vacuum cups in axial side-by-side alignment and maintained in their original as-gripped circumferential orientation relative to one another transversely of the container as they are carried as so gripped and held by the vacuum cups to said conveyor container discharge station for delivery to a trimming apparatus.