Patent GB-699806-A (GB)
Title: Means for crating or boxing bottles and for removing bottles from crates or boxes
IPC: B65B21/20
Filed: 1950-08-10
Abstract: 699,806. Packaging machines. MIDLAND COUNTIES DAIRY, Ltd., and BIRCH, J. E. Aug. 9, 1951 (Aug. 10,1950], No. 19871/50. Class 94(i) [Also in Group XXX] Manifold arrangements for lifting assemblies of articles; transferring articles to and from conveyers. Several spaced rows of touching bottles 13 (Fig. 1) are raised by an assembly of gripping 'devices 48 and the bottles are spaced whilst suspended so that they may be dropped into the compartments of a crate 15. The bottles are delivered from a filling machine (not shown) by a conveyer 14 and are marshalled into the rows by guides 18 above the conveyer. A row of the gripping devices 48 adapted to engage one bottle in each row of bottles is carried on each of five hollow manifolds 37 adapted to slide on rods 42 near the ends of the manifolds and biased to the position shown in Fig. 1, in which they are in contact, by springs 43, 44. A nut 66 (Fig. 3) and a shoulder 63 suitably spaced on each of two piston rods 61, 62 engage brackets 64 on the manifolds 37 to move them to the spaced position shown in Fig. 3, so as to separate the bottles, when pistons 60 are acted upon by pneumatic or hydraulic pressure in a cylinder 59. Further brackets (not shown) on the manifolds 37 are engaged by further guide rods. The assembly of manifolds 37 is guided by a pair of rods 26 (Fig. 1) sliding in guides 27 on a carriage 12 so that it may be raised and lowered by a pneumatic or hydraulic ram 30 mounted on the carriage. The carriage 12 may be traversed on rollers 20 along a pair of guide tracks 11 by a double acting ram 21 so as to carry the bottles 13 from above the conveyer 14 to above the crate 15, after which the bottles are spaced as described above; the assembly is lowered by exhausting the ram 30, and the bottles are released to fall through a small distance into the compartments of the crate. A single rotary valve 77 continuously driven. by an electric motor may control the rams 21, 30 and 59 and the gripping devices 48 to provide a continuous action and this valve may also control means for controlling the movement of crates 15 to the loading position by a conveyer 16. To accommodate the machine to bottles of different heights the pillars 10 supporting the tracks 11 may be raised and lowered by screws 71 mounted in a fixed base for rotation by chains and sprockets 73, 72 driven through bevel gears 74, 75 from a handle 76. The machine may be capable of adjustment so that it delivers bottles from the crate 15 to the conveyer 14 and in this operation the spacing of the manifolds 37 is not varied. Gripping devices for lifting bottles. Each bottle is gripped by a rubber ring 51 (Fig. 3) mounted in an inverted cup-shaped member and formed of channel section with the flanges directed outwardly so that it distorts to grip the bottle when compressed by a sleeve 52 which is forced downwardly by a disc 53 when a floating piston 55, 56 is acted upon by pneumatic or hydraulic pressure communicated through a bore 57 from the interior of the manifold 37. The bottle is guided into the 'device 48 by a press fitted phosphor-bronze insert 49. Air trapped in the device as it engages a bottle escapes through a hole 54 in the disc 53, a saw-cut in the underside of the piston 55, and a hole 58.