Patent GB-489457-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to machines for screwing caps to bottles and like containers
IPC: B67B3/20
Filed: 1937-07-05
Abstract: 489,457. Feeding bottle caps. SICKEL, H. July 5, 1937, Nos. 18671 and 18672. Convention dates, July 3, 1936 and July 1, 1937. [Class 78 (i)] [Also in Group XVII] In screwing caps on to the necks of bottles and like containers the caps may be automatically supplied to the screwing-on device and in the arrangement shown in Figs. 5 and 6 they are delivered from a hopper 43 to a shoot 40 leading to the bottles &c. which are moved to the screwing-on position by an intermittently-rotating carrier 37 : an inclined track 41 leads the cap to the neck of the bottle &c. on to which it is screwed by the friction wheel 39. The caps in the hopper are carried one by one by an apertured rotating plate 44 to an aperture 48 in the bottom of the hopper where the cap falls into a pivoted container 49 with its aperture upwards : the cap so positioned is then transferred by the container 49 to the shoot 40 with its aperture downwards and an oscillating pin may be arranged in the shoot to discharge through the side thereof any cap that may pass down the shoot with its aperture directed upwards. If the empty bottles &c.. have caps screwed thereon, they may be unscrewed by a friction wheel 57 at position b and lifted by a swinging lever 58 and an incline 41 into a tube 59 from the top of which they may be removed one by one and conveyed to the shoot 40 by a perforated disc 62 moving over a track 63, or the tube 59 may be one of a series carried by a rotatable table which moves the filled tube to position d: in these cases the hopper 43 and associated parts are unnecessary. The bottles &c. may be fed to the carrier 37 by hand or from a receptacle 64 supported at an inclination and from which they are fed one by one to the carrier at position a by a notched conical disc 65 rotating in a shield 67. In another arrangement the caps are carried from a shoot by a rotating apertured plate working over a base to a position under a rotating friction pad which axially engages the cap when it is pushed into by a bottle inserted beneath it, the cap being supported by spring- controlled slidable plates which are pushed apart as the bottle is raised to engage inclined projections on the plates : the feeding movement of the rotating apertured plate may be controlled by the movement of the bottle after it has had a cap screwed thereon. The bottles &c. may be simultaneously treated in groups and in the arrangement shown in Figs. 9 and 13 the caps at the screwing-on station are fed through tubes 225 to a reciprocating apertured plate 224 by which they are carried under the spindles which are driven from the shaft 214 and the caps are delivered to the tubes 225 from a hopper 228 by an oscillating member 229 carrying cups which pick up the caps and deliver them to a group of tubes 230 leading to an oscillating roller 232 having transverse bores 232a which, when in alignment with funnels 231 leading from the tube 230, take caps from the funnels and carry them to the tubes 225. Compressed air pipes 233 open into the lower ends of the bores 232a and jets of air from the pipes turn the caps in the funnels located above them so that their apertures are directed upwards, the supply of air then being shut off and the roller 232 rotating and delivering the caps to the tubes 225. The cups of the member 229 may be provided internally with pins so that only caps with their apertures facing inwards are taken up. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specifications 18179/99, 10575/01, 161,889, 226,572, [all in Class 125 (ii)], 354,932, 405,106, and 452,785, [all in Group XVII].