Patent GB-1030691-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for handling and washing barrels, kegs and the like
Inventor: HARGREAVES GEORGE
IPC: B08B9/08
Filed: 1961-06-01
Abstract: 1,030,691. Washing casks. WRIGHT HARGREAVES ENGINEERING CO. Ltd. June 1, 1962 [June 1, 1961], No. 19805/61. Division B8T. Casks are carried successively, step - by - step to a first station where their bungs, pre. viously unscrewed, are removed, then to a second station where the casks are washed by nozzle means, and finally to a station where the bungs are replaced. In Fig. 1, casks are fed by a shoot 20 to a loading device 21 which tips each cask with its bung end uppermost on to a con veyer 23 at a receiving station 22. The casks are conveyed to a bung unscrewing station 26, then to a station 27 where the unscrewed bungs are lifted from the casks and laterally transferred to a bung conveyer 28 which carries them, in synchronism with the casks, step-bystep through bung washing stations 35, 36 and 37. The bung unscrewing mechanism may be as disclosed in Specification 940,975. The casks are carried from station 27 to a station 29 where they are inverted with their bung holes lowermost and are then conveyed to cask washing stations 30, 31 and 32. The cask inverting apparatus may be as disclosed in Specification 952,570. During the dwell period at each cask washing station a nozzle is inserted upwardly through the bung hole and delivers water to the cask interior; such washing apparatus may be as disclosed in Specification 1,030,692. After washing, the cask is inverted at station 34, its washed bung replaced at station 39, and screwed home at station 40; the cask then passes to a conveyer 25 at a discharge station 24. The conveyer 23 comprises spaced endless chains with their top flights riding along channel members 90, Fig. 3, and at the bung removing station 27 a laterally and pneumatically driven carriage 93 carries a suction device 98 which is raised and lowered pneumatically to withdraw the unscrewed bung from the cask 76 and to deposit it in a funnellike member 105 on the bung conveyer 28. The cask is partially rotated after the suction device has descended on to the bung to ensure disengagement of the bung and cask threads, and for this purpose a rotary disc 99 is raised into engagement with the cask base and partially rotated pneumatically via a ram 103 and a drive chain. As shown in Fig. 7, the bung 73 may be of the kind including a depending tube 81 and a spring-urged valve member 78 engaging a seating 79 in a part 155 urged against a seating 157 by a spring 158. It is washed by a head 150 slidably mounted on a spindle 152 supported by a rod 151. The latter is pneumatically urged downwardly so that the parts 78 and 155 are removed from their seatings by the head of the spindle, whereupon water is fed through the head and bung via passage 160. Both at the bung removing and bung replacing stations, means for guiding the depending tube 81 of each bung is provided, and consists of two arms 167 pivoted on spindles 166 and each carrying a vertically grooved plate 168 to engage a side of the tube. The plates are normally urged against the tube and are swung away therefrom to make way for the main body of the bung. The synchronized step-by-step movement of the conveyers is provided by a Geneva-stop motion which also controls the various pneumatic drives. Means for warning or for stopping the machine if a bung has not been placed on its conveyer 28 comprises a control system including a relay 108 in circuit with lightsensitive cells 106 and 109a; the former is influenced by the presence of a cask, the latter by a bung on their respective conveyers.