Patent GB-257587-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in apparatus for feeding bottles to bottle capping and like machines
IPC: B67C7/00
Filed: 1926-08-10
Abstract: 257,587. Crown Cork & Seal Co., (Assignees of Lloyd, F. L., and Huntley, G. J.). Aug. 26, 1925, [Convention date]. Bottling; capsules and the like, applying. - Apparatus for feeding bottles to a machine having a rotary unit for capping or filling or filling and capping the bottles, comprises in-feed and out-feed spiders adapted to feed and deliver bottles to and from the unit from a conveyer running substantially parallel to the unit, means, controlled by the movement of the in-feed spider, being provided for presenting the bottles to the spider in timed relation therewith. The machine comprises a support member 21, Fig. 2, carrying through a bracket 24 a fixed standard 25 about which is adapted to rotate a cage 26 driven by a worm 31 and worm wheel 30. The cage 26 supports a column 34 on which are mounted a housing 35 in which the capping-heads 36 are equidistantly mounted and bottle supports 40 adapted to slide in guides 42 under control of rollers 45, 47 which engage the upper and lower faces of a cam track 43 on the bracket 24. In their lowered positions, the bottle supports are level with a rotating table 52 carried by the column 34 and level with a large stationary table 55, Fig. 1, formed with a recess to accommodate a conveyer 65 which feeds the bottles to and removes them from the machine. The bottles are transferred from the conveyer to the bottlerests by a spider 70, formed with recesses 71 equal in number to the bottle-rests, and are transferred again to the conveyer by a similar spider 130 having recesses 131, both spiders being similarly mounted and driven. The hub 81, Fig. 3, of the spider 70 is formed with recesses 80 in which engage pins 69 on a collar 79 loosely mounted on the hub 73 of a gear-like wheel 72, a transverse recess in the collar 79 being engaged under the influence of a spring 85 with a rib on a collar 77 secured to the hub 73. The hub 75 is recessed to receive a fixed part 75 on which the gear 72 and spider 70 rest through the intermediary of a ball 74. To rotate the spider 70, sleeves 50, Fig. 2, carried by the bottle supports 40 and adapted to keep liquid &c. from the mechanism of the machine, engage the gear 72 and turn it in the opposite direction to the table 52 and bottle-rests 40. In operation, bottles fed indiscriminately on to the conveyer 65 are guided between adjustable guides 100, 106 secured to the table 55 until the foremost is checked by one of the arms 111 of a star-wheel 110<1> disposed beside the conveyer on a post secured to a bracket 114 on the table 55 so that one of the arms of the wheel overhangs it. The star-wheel is held against rotation by a pin 121 engaging another of its arms, the pin being mounted on a spring-supported arm 122 pivoted in the bracket 114 and is released at the required time by depression of the arm 122 when a roller 128 on the end of it is engaged by a cam beneath the spider 70, there being a cam corresponding to each recess 71 of the spider 70. When the star-wheel 110<1> is released, the conveyer moves the bottle past it, rotating it thereby, and the bottle passes to one of the recesses 71 being guided by a spring-pressed guide 108 until it reaches the recess, when a fixed arcuate guide 90 directs it across the tables 55 and 52 on to a bottle-rest 40. As the bottle-rest rotates about the column 25, it is raised by the cam track 43 to effect the capping and then lowered level with the table 52, the capped bottle being wiped off the bottle-rest 40 by an arcuate guide 190, symmetrical with the guide 90, and the spider 130 then deposits it on the conveyer where it is guided by guides 138, 139. The conveyer, which transports the bottles at a greater speed than the spiders 70, 130, is driven by a gearwheel 145 secured to the gear 133 of the spider 130, the gear wheel 145 operating through a gear 146, sprocket wheel 149, chain 150, and sprocket wheel 151 on the shaft carrying the conveyer sprocket wheel. As shown in Fig. 1, the bottle supports move in a counter-clockwise direction, but the machine may be made to move in the opposite direction by changing the drive, removing the bracket 114 with its fittings and placing on opposite hand one in a recess 160 near the spider 130, exchanging the guides 138 and 100 and the guides 139 and 106 and 108, and placing the sprocket 151 at the other end of the conveyer, a longer driving chain being used.