Patent GB-226572-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for applying closures to bottles, jars and the like
IPC: B67B1/04
Filed: 1923-06-26
Abstract: 226,572. Burbush, G. H. June 26, 1923. Stoppering; corking; capsuling. - Apparatus, for applying closures to bottles, jars, &c. and of the type in which a number of bottles are moved automatically and intermittently over a table and closures are applied simultaneously to each of a group of bottles brought in succession below a group of vertically-moving closure-applying devices, comprises a hopper for the closures, means for feeding closures therefrom to closure - holding means, means for moving the closures from the holding means and applying them to the bottles, means including endless chains for moving bottle-holding trays or receptacles in a straight path below the closure feeding, holding, and applying means, and actuating-mechanism whereby these means can be actuated at the required times so that closures fed from the hopper can be applied to the bottles without raising the bottles. Closures such as corks, are introduced into a hopper 6, Fig. 5, which is oscillated about an inclined axis 12 by an eccentric 23 acting through a link 22 and gears 19, 15. The hopper is mounted above a stationary base-plate 8, the corks slipping through an annular space between the hopper and the plate into shoots 7 from which they fall on to lips, i<2>, Fig. 1, of holders i mounted in a crosshead h. The corks are thrust into the holders i and compressed by a member i<1> mounted in a cross-head v reciprocated, against spring action, through links 1 and levers 2 by a cam 4, Fig. 2, on a shaft r provided with a pinion s driven from the main driving-wheel t<1>. To bring the holders i down on to the bottles, the cross-head h slides vertically in guides c in the main frame a under the action of gravity assisted by spring and controlled by cams o on the shaft r to which the cross-head is operatively connected by rods k, k<1> and levers m, m<2>. The closures are thrust into the bottles by plungers j mounted on a crosshead g which is reciprocated in the guides c by links 28, levers 29, a link 31 and a crank 32 secured to the wheel s. The bottle trays are fed to the closuring-appliances by an intermittentlymoving endless-chain conveyer 33 adapted, when the last row of bottles in a tray has been closured, to move more rapidly than at other times to allow for the thicknesses of the ends of the trays. A link 50 connects an eccentric pin 51 on a wheel 52 on the shaft r with a lever 48 connected by links 45, 46 to levers 43, 44 of unequal size. Each lever fulcrums about a shaft 33 carrying a sprocket wheel 37, Fig. 7, which supports one end of the endless-chain conveyer 33 and two ratchet wheels 39, 40 adapted to be operated by pawls 41, 42 on the levers 43, 44 respectively to move the conveyer. Normally the pawl 41 operated the conveyer, but when the last row of bottles in a tray is closured, the pawl 42, which has a larger movement than the pawl 41 and co-operates with unequally-spaced teeth on the ratchet-wheel 40, comes into play and moves the conveyer through an increased distance. In applying screw-stoppers to bottles, the stoppers are placed in an oscillating hopper 70, Fig. 16, provided with slots 70<b> through which only the stems of the stoppers can pass, the stoppers dropping through central enlargements 70<c> of the slots into shoots 79 whence they are transferred to the capping-heads 59, Fig. 9, by holders 77, Fig. 13, provided with spring- pressed pivoted jaws 75. Mounted on the plunger cross-head h is a shaft 64 adapted to be rotated by gears 65, one pinion of which is slidable on the vertical driving-shaft 66. Worms 61 on a shaft 62 driven from the shaft 64 rotate the plungers j<1>, which are depressed against the action of springs 56 by levers 67 actuated by camis 68 on the shaft 64, the depression forcing the stoppers through the pivoted jaws into the bottles. The machine may be adapted for applying disc closures and 'crown corks.'