Patent GB-694131-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to bottle-capping machines
Inventor: CLARKE FRANK JOSEPH
IPC: B67B3/064
Filed: 1951-01-10
Abstract: 694,131. Feeding bottle caps. CLARKE-BUILT, Ltd. Jan. 8, 1952 (Jan. 10, 1951], No. 702/51. Class 125(ii). [Also in Group II] Apparatus for selecting bottle caps one at a time from a stack comprises a pneumatic unit consisiting of two elements, a piston and a cylinder which are relatively movable, one of the elements having an aperture which is closed by an endmost cap of the stack when the apertured element is moved due to certain pneumatic conditions within the unit, thereby so altering the pneumatic conditions that the movable elements is moved away from the stack and carries with it the endmost cap, a control valve when operated freeing the,abstracted cap pneumatically to permit of its removal from the apertured element. The piston 1 is attached to a platform 2 in a casing 3 and the cylinder 4 is fitted over the piston head 5 so as to slide thereon. An adapter 11, interchangeable to deal with different sizes of bottle cap, is secured, by screws to the top of the cylinder and has a number of perforations 14 in its top. A bore 15 extends through the piston and communicates by an orifice 16 with the space 17 above the piston head, and at right angles to the bore 15 a hole 18 extends through the side of the piston stem 9 to the space 19 below the piston head. The casing 3 is secured by screws to a fixed support 21, having a four-way passage 22, one arm being connected to a tube 23 which enters the piston bore 15 and the lower arm being connected to a pipeline 24 connected to a vacuum pump. A pipe 26 having a closed end 27 and aligned openings 28 extends through the remaining two arms and is provided with an automatically or manually operated valve 25 which is normally open to the atmosphere. The valve 25 includes a rotatable plug 31 having a surface port 32 which is normally kept aligned with the open end of the pipe 26 by means of a spiral spring 33, the plug having a projecting arm 35 which is moved by a bottle travelling towards a cap-applying unit to operate the valve 25. A holder 36 on the casing 3 supports on a shoulder 37 a magazine 38 containing a stack of inverted aluminium bottle caps 39, the caps being retained by a series of inwardly directed projections 40. A rubber or felt ring 44 cushions the cylinder at the bottom of its stroke. When the valve 25 is open free air is drawn through the main passage 15, 16, and the branch passage 18 via the pipe 26 and through the perforated top of the adapter 11. When a travelling bottle operates the valve 25 to cut off this source of free air the vacuum pump creates a partial vacuum in the space 19, causing the cylinder 4 to rise, the upper part of the cylinder being open to the atmosphere. The valve 25 remains closed a sufficient time for the cylinder to carry the top of the adapter 11 into contact with the lowermost cap of the stack 39, which closes the holes in the top of the adapter thus preventing further air from being drawn into the space 17. A partial vacuum is created in this space equal to that in the space 19 and since the surface area at the top of the piston head is greater than that at the underside, the cylinder 4 is drawn down taking with it by suction the cap 39a which is removed by deflection of its skirt through-the projections 40. When the cylinder reaches the bottom of its stroke the valve 25 is opened leaving the cap 39a resting freely on the adapter 11 ready for removal to the shoot 43 by a jet of air from the nipple 41, or alternatively by a mechanical device.