Patent GB-1323854-A (GB)
Title: Machine for sealingly closing containers by means of covers
IPC: B65B7/28
Filed: 1972-01-21
Abstract: 1323854 Machine for applying and sealing separate closure members to receptacles E P REMY ET CIE 21 Jan 1972 [28 Jan 1971 12 Jan 1972] 3016/72 Heading B8C In a machine for automatically sealingly closing containers R with covers 0 twelve stools 12, carrying containers, are distributed uniformly in a circle C<SP>1</SP>, on a base 10 fixed to a drum 8 carried by a hollow shaft 3 which is mounted for continuous rotation within a cylindrical support 2 and is keyed to drive pinion 7, and container lids 0 are transferred, from a capfeeding device 40, to a rotatable cap-conveying member 50 which is rotated by the shaft 3 at twice the speed of the drum 8 and has six fingers 53 which rotate in a circle C2 and which project into a guide-plate 75 to transfer, at a tangent point T between the two circles, C1, C2, a cover 0 on top of each container located directly therebelow. Each stool 12 is surrounded by a container raising device comprising a vertically-guided hollow cylinder 15 which has a roller 17 which co-operates with an upper cam surface on a cylindrical rail 18. In a cycle of operation the containers R, placed on the stools 12 by a supply star 35 of well-known type are first raised by the cylinders 15, in turn, to a level just below that of the corresponding cover 0 at the transfer zone T and then raised further to co-operate with the corresponding one of twelve heated sealing heads 22 which are each mounted, with slight vertical resilience and in vertical alignment with a corresponding stool 12, on a plate 21 supported by rods 20 from the drum 8. The cylinders 15 carrying the capped and sealed containers are subsequently lowered and the containers are discharged by a known-type of star member 36, driven by the pinion 7. Caps, formed in a machine 70, are transferred through a shoot 71 to the transfer device 40 which comprises a guide bar 48 and two helical springs 41a, 41b of the same, but reversed, pitch which are mounted respectively on curved rods 42a, 42b, are free at their lower ends, and are driven, at their upper ends by pinions 45a, 45b connected to a cap-cutting punch 46 which delivers caps to the device 40. The rotatable cap-conveying member 50 comprises an angularly adjustable disc 51 having a series of radial arms 52 which carry, at their ends, the fingers 53 and which is driven by the shaft 3 by means of gearing 62, 63 and supported by a fixed table 56. The guide plate 75 for guiding the caps is secured to the table 56 and comprises an upper disc 77 with a notch 78 which allows the caps to pass to a lower disc 79 having a cap guiding arcuate groove 80 which is concentric with the circle C2 and which has a groove 81 to allow the fingers 52 to pass. A blade 85 at the transfer point T ensures the guiding of the containers and caps. In a modification, Figs. 9-15 not shown, the caps move along a circle which is exactly superposed on the circle C 1  around which the containers pass so that the transfer of the caps on to the containers can be carried out over a relatively greater distance that which occurs at the point of tangency T in the first embodiment. In this embodiment the path of the caps comprises a first position (C2) which is externally tangent to the circle (C1) and a second portion whose curvature is inverted in respect of the first portion and which is tangentially connected to the latter and concentric with the circle C1.