Patent GB-270536-A (GB)
Title: A machine for loading bottles into cases
IPC: B65B21/16
Filed: 1926-08-17
Abstract: 270,536. DulchÚ, C. Aug. 17, 1926. Packing bottles into cases.-A machine for loading bottles into cases comprises a conveyer adapted to carry bottles to a basket and to introduce them therein, the bottles, when the basket has been filled, being discharged simultaneously from the basket into a case. The machine is provided with a basket 32, Figs. 1 and 4, an intermittently moving conveyer 73 for feeding empty cases to the machine at a lower level than, and at right angles to. a bottle feeding belt 11, and a conveyer 96 for discharging the filled cases, the whole being supported by a framing 1 comprising posts 5 - - 8 and horizontal members 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, the members 9, 10 being arranged transversely. The belt 11, supported on rollers 12, 13 mounted in the framing, is driven from a shaft 19 journaled in the frame members 3 so that bottles are passed through a throat 24, formed by the ends 23 of curved guide rails 22 to the nose 26 of a central guide rail 31 where a pivoted deflecting finger 27 directs them alternately to either side of the nose. The bottles thus separated are further divided by similar fingers 27 on guide rails 30, the channels 25 between the guide rails each receiving an equal number of bottles which are pushed along them across bending plates 41 into the basket 22 by the bottle behind. The basket comprises continuations of the rails 22, 30, 31 and an end member 21, the bottles being supported on the upturned ends of hinged tracks 38 secured to rods 50, Fig 3, fitted at their ends with cams 49 which are held against rotation by a spring urged latch bar 51 adapted to be locked in its lowest position by a latch member 57. This member engages a catch 58 on the armature of an electromagnet. As each row of bottles in the basket is completed. the foremost bottle presses a switch button 62 on the end member 21 and when all the switches have been operated, the magnet withdraws the catch 58 permitting the rods 50 to turn and the trucks 38 to drop under the weight of the bottles. The bottles pass through shoots formed by resilient arms 44 which check their fali into a case previously fed by the conveyer 73 along rollers mounted in members 66 forming a side extension of the machine. The case into which the bottles fall rests upon a table 75 supported by parallel pivoted arms 84, 85 and balance by a weight 89 adjustably mounted on an extension 88 of the arm 84. The table comprises side members connected together by an underbraca 78 and discontinuous transverse members which leave a central gap between them. The weight of the bottles depresses the table until the discharge conveyer 96 projects into the gap between its transverse members, the case being supported by a slotted guide plate 100. In this position one of several projections 98 on it engage the case to remove it from the machine. The conveyer 96, which is driven continuously from an outside source, is mounted on sprockets 95, 97, the latter of which is secured to the shaft 19 from which the bottle feeding belt 11 is driven. When the case is removed from the table 75, the table rises to receive another empty case which is fed on to it by the conveyer 73. This conveyer is operated by a motor 123 controlled by a circuit including a switch 103 which is normally closed and a contact bar secured to a support on the table 75. When the table reaches its highest position the switch 103 being closed, the bar completes the circuit and the conveyer is actuated to feed a case on to the table. Pivoted stops 81 on the table determine the position of the case thereon and the case, as it reaches this position, displaces a pivoted bar 108 on the switch 103 to break the circuit and stop the conveyer. As the case and table descend the contact bar is removed from its operative position and the bar 108 returns to normal position, and extensions 83 on the stops 81 engage a cross bar 102 on the framing to remove the stop from the path of the case as it is removed by the conveyer.