In-case container filling machine

A container filling device that raises a case of empty containers to be filled to engagement with a centering block and fill tube assembly. Each centering block surrounds a fill tube extending into the container and forms a seal around the neck of the container to be filled while providing communication between the interior of the container and a vacuum system. Fluid operated reciprocating piston pumps, through a system of check valves, draw measured amounts of liquid product from a bulk storage container and thereafter inject the measured amounts through the fill tubes into the containers while air is simultaneously exhausted from the containers by vacuum.

This invention relates in general to container filling apparatus and, in 
particular, to a device for rapidly transferring premeasured amounts of 
liquid product into a plurality of case held containers, such as jugs, 
bottles or the like. 
Container filling machines have long been used for simultaneously filling a 
number of bottles, or other containers, with liquids. Some incorporate 
predetermined measures of liquid for each container. Others employ the 
"in-case" filling features, wherein a number of empty containers in a 
packing box or case are position-oriented to communicate with individual 
ones of plural filling tubes. Various air venting means are known by which 
ready escape of air is provided for each bottle as it is filled, 
particularly where the bottle neck engagingly opens a fill valve between 
supply source and the container. Individual ones and combinations of these 
features are found, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,419,235 Desobry, 
917,155 Sanders, 963,119 Champ, 630,309 Denham and 212,494 Paddock. 
Many prior art devices, such as those typified above, were generally 
concerned with gravity flow of liquid at a flow rate determined by 
restrictions imposed by fill tube geometry and the viscosity of the liquid 
being bottled. 
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,202, "In-Case Bottle Filling Apparatus" by the 
inventor of the present invention, there is disclosed apparatus using a 
single common pressure source to fill a plurality of cased bottles 
simultaneously and a single common vacuum source to exhaust the air from 
the bottles as they are being filled. 
It is, then, a principal object of the present invention to provide an 
automatic in-case container filling apparatus wherein a preselected 
measure of liquid for each container is extracted from a bulk supply 
container by the intake stroke of a pump and injected into the container 
by the output stroke of the pump. 
Another object of the present invention to provide automatic in-case 
container filling apparatus using vacuum air exhaust from a container 
being filled by the same pumping means used to pressure fill the 
container. 
Still another object of the present invention to provide automatic in-case 
container filling apparatus wherein the speed of filling is easily 
adjustable by adjustment of the fluid pressure of the control system. 
Features of this invention useful in accomplishing the above objects 
include an elevator table to raise shipping case containing a plurality of 
containers to be filled to engagement with an assembly having a fill tube 
and centering block structure for each container. The centering blocks 
each surround a fill tube and act to seal the containers and provide 
communication with a vacuum exhaust line. A double acting piston on a 
common shaft with a double acting pump means controls the pump to intake a 
metered amount of liquid from a bulk supply source and output that metered 
amount of liquid to fill the container. At the same time the other end of 
the double acting pump exhausts air from the container as it is filled. 
A specific embodiment representing what is presently regarded as the best 
mode of carrying out the invention is illustrated in the accompanying 
drawings.

Referring to the drawings: 
Reference is now made to the drawings, and particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, 
which show the automatic container filling apparatus 9 of the present 
invention in side and front views respectively. The apparatus comprises a 
frame 10 having upper and lower longitudinal members 11 and 12, upper and 
lower cross members 13 and 14, and upright members 15. A base plate 16 is 
affixed to the lower cross and longitudinal members. The frame 10 is 
mounted on four wheels, three of which, 17, 18 and 19, are visible in the 
drawings, through mounting plates 20, providing mobility of the apparatus. 
An elevator shelf 21 is mounted on the piston shaft 22 of a fluid cylinder 
23. Mounted on front and rear top plates 24 and 25, respectively, are 
double acting piston controlled pump assemblies 26. 
The number and size of the pump assemblies 26 is dependent on the number 
and size of the containers to be filled. For purposes of illustration it 
will be assumed that the illustrated unit is designed to fill 
simultaneously six one-gallon containers nested in a single packing case. 
Additional upright members 27 act as guides for elevator shelf 21 and as 
mounting supports for a centering block and fill tube assembly designated 
generally as 28. 
In operation the container filling apparatus is positioned between two 
conveyors 29 and 30, as shown in FIG. 2. A shipping carton 31, containing 
six one-gallon containers 61 to be filled, is received from conveyor 29 
and automatically positioned on elevator shelf 21 (see FIG. 1). 
Pressurized fluid from a source (not shown) is then admitted to the inlet 
port 32 of cylinder 23 causing piston 33 and attached shaft 22 to rise, 
thus elevating shelf 21 and the case 31 with its containers until the 
necks of the containers engage centering and seal blocks of assembly 28. 
As best shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, the fill tube and centering block assembly 
28 comprises a fill tube 34 and a surrounding centering block 35 
positioned over each container to be filled. Centering blocks 35 may be of 
nylon, "Teflon", or other suitable material. Filler tubes 34 may be of any 
suitable material such as plastic. Advantageously the filler tubes 
terminate in a tapered section 66, the bottom end of which is angle cut as 
at 62 to provide a smaller diameter element requiring less critical 
centering of the container neck for entry of the filler tube. Thus as the 
elevator shelf 21 lifts the containers 61, the fill tubes 34 are inserted 
through the necks of the containers. The elevator shelf 21 continues to 
lift the containers until the rim 36 of each container engages the conical 
walls 37 of the opening on the underside of the centering block 35. 
Further raising of the container causes the neck rim 36, first to be 
centered, then to be seated and sealed against the centering blocks. To 
facilitate this seal a thin washer 65 of rubber or other suitable 
resilient material is mounted in a groove 64 in the tapered wall 37. As 
the container neck is raised it engages the washer 65 and forces is 
against the tapered wall 37 above groove 64, thus forming the seal. 
In this raised position the containers may then be filled through filler 
tubes 34 with liquid under pressure from lines 38 while air within the 
containers is withdrawn through the space between the container neck and 
the fill tube through the chambers 39 by vacuum lines 40. 
The filling and exhausting mechanism is best shown in FIG. 5. In each 
double acting pump 26, piston 41 in upper cylinder 42 is connected by 
shaft 43 to piston 44 in lower cylinder 45. Movement of pump piston 41 is 
thereby controlled by movement of piston 44. Lower cylinder 45 has ports 
46 and 47 at either end for the introduction and exhaust of pressurized 
operating fluid, which may be either liquid or gaseous, through lines 48 
and 49. Introduction and exhaust of the operating fluid from a pressurized 
source, not shown, is controlled through an appropriate valving and 
control system of the type well known in the art. The source may be the 
same as that supplying operating fluid to shelf control cylinder 23. The 
controls of cylinders 45 and 23 may be interconnected for automatic 
operation of the cylinders in appropriate sequence. 
The upper cylinder 42 of pump 26 has a port 50 communicating with the space 
above piston 41 and a port 51 communicating with the space below piston 
41. Port 50 is connected through check valve 52 and lines 53 to the supply 
reservoir 56 of liquid with which the containers are to be filled. A pump 
57 may be used, if desired, to charge line 53 with filler liquid. Port 50 
is also connected through check valve 54 and lines 55 and 38 to one of the 
fill tubes 34 of centering block and fill tube assembly 28. Port 51 is 
connected to the exhaust chamber 39 of assembly 28 through lines 40 and 59 
and check valve 58 and to a waste receptacle, not shown, through check 
valve 60 and lines 59 and 63. 
The following describes the operation of the apparatus of the present 
invention in filling containers. An open shipping case 31 with empty 
containers 61 is positioned on elevator shelf 21, such as by hand or from 
conveyor 29. The shelf, case and empty containers are raised by piston 
shaft 22 through the introduction of pressurized operating fluid through 
inlet 32 to cylinder 23. The shelf is raised until the container neck 
openings contact, are centered by and seal against their respective 
centering blocks 35 as shown in FIG. 4 and in phantom in FIG. 1. At the 
same time preferably, or before or after if desired, pressurized operating 
fluid is introduced through line 49 and port 47 into the lower cylinder 45 
of pump 26. Piston 44 is thus forced to the bottom of cylinder 45 to the 
position shown in FIG. 5. Pump piston 41 connected to piston 44 by shaft 
43 is forced to the bottom of cylinder 42. The partial vacuum created 
above piston 41 draws supply liquid from the reservoir 56 through lines 
53, check valve 52 and port 50 to fill the space above piston 41. The 
volume of this space determines the amount of liquid supplied to fill the 
container. Thus the pump may be sized to deliver nominally one gallon per 
stroke, for example. The length of the stroke may then be adjusted to 
provide exact desired volume in a manner well known. 
At the same time the cylinder space above piston 41 is being filled, the 
contents of the cylinder space below piston 41 is being forced out through 
lines 59 and 61 and check valve 60 to a waste receptacle. Check valve 58 
prevents flow into line 40. 
After the container necks 36 have been seated to seal against centering 
blocks 35, upward stroke of the pump 26 is initiated by admission of 
pressurised working fluid to cylinder 45 through line 48 and port 46. As 
piston 41 is forced up by piston 44 and shaft 43 filler liquid is forced 
out of cylinder 42 through port 50 and, being blocked by check valve 52, 
through check valve 54, lines 55 and 38 and filler tube 34 into the 
container 61. The upward movement of piston 41 to force the emission of 
filler liquid simultaneously produces a partial vacuum below piston 41 in 
cylinder 42, which acts through lines 59, check valves 58 and lines 40 to 
suck the air from the container being filled and any foam or bubbles 
produced by the filling operation. This material is then exhausted through 
lines 59, check valve 60 and lines 61 to a waste receptacle by the next 
downward stroke of piston 41. 
After the containers have been filled, elevator shelf 21 is lowered by 
operation of cylinder 23, case 31 removed, mechanically or by hand, to 
conveyor 30, for example. The apparatus is then ready to receive another 
case of empty containers and repeat its filling cycle. 
It is to be recognized that the apparatus disclosed herein may be used to 
fill some containers in a carton or case with one liquid and other 
containers in the same carton with a different liquid simultaneously when 
the two different liquids are intended to be used or sold together. In 
fact, each container in the carton could be filled with a different liquid 
simultaneously. Such filling with different liquids is easily accomplished 
by merely changing the feed system to lines 53. For example, the lines 53 
on the right side of FIG. 3 could be supplied from a reservoir containing 
one filler liquid and lines 53 on the left side of FIG. 4 supplied from a 
different reservoir containing a different filler liquid. Obviously the 
check valves 52 could each be connected to different separate reservoirs 
each containing a different filler liquid. It is equally obvious that only 
minor changes in the design of the apparatus are required for its use in 
filling different sizes and volumes of containers, even in the same case 
or carton, and, of course, different numbers of bottles per case. 
Whereas this invention has been illustrated and described herein with 
respect to a particular embodiment, it is to be realized that various 
changes may be made without departing from essential contributions to the 
art made by the teachings hereof.