Patent GB-715134-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to apparatus for packing bottles or other articles
Inventor: MITCHELL ALISTAIR MACINTOSH
IPC: B65B21/20
Filed: 1951-10-12
Abstract: 715,134. Packaging - machines; unpacking. CRAWLEY INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS, Ltd. Dec. 2, 1952 [Oct. 12, 1951], No. 23803/51. Class 94 (1) [Also in Group XXX] Apparatus for loading articles into a crate or for unloading them from a crate comprises a carriage horizontally movable to and fro between a position above a crate and above an assembly table for the articles, the carriage suspending an array of devices for gripping and releasing the articles, the plan of the array being changeable to suit either the plan of the crate or the arrangement of articles on the assembly table, and means being provided for raising the crate and the assembly table respectively to and from the gripping devices. In a machine for loading bottles into a crate, bottles are fed in single line from a conveyer 25 on to an intermittently moving conveyer 26 on which ranks of six bottles are formed and fed into gangways defined by plates 2, the bottles then being carried along in contact with one another by a marshalling conveyer 1 to an assembly table 3. When the table is full the front rank of bottles press on a series of air control limit valves 11 and pneumatic jack 4 raises the table 3 the border of which acts as a gate to hold up the feed of further bottles. The assembled bottles are thus raised into and engaged by grippers 5 each comprising an inverted cup having a rubber liner which may be pneumatically constricted to grip the bottle neck, a plunger in the upper oart of the cup preventing damage of the rubber liner by the crimped metal bottle stopper. The grippers are suspended from bar carriers 13a-d carried by sleeves 14 on a pair of shafts 15 fixed in a carriage 6 which is movable on rails 8. The carrier 13a is fixed relative to the carriage 6 but the other carriers are free to slide on the shafts 15 to an extent limited by check bolts 20 each screwed fast in one carrier and passed through a clearance hole in the next carrier. After the bottle gripping operation, the carriage 6 is moved from above the table 3 by a pneumatic ram 9 to a position above a crate 21, a stop rod 17 engaging a stop 18 and carriers 13a 13b, 13c sliding along shafts 15 and rod 17 to their opened out positions such that the gripped bottles coincide with the compartments of the crate. Empty crates are moved on to a pneumatically operated elevator 22 which lifts a crate to house the battles which are then released, the loaded crate being lowered and the elevator being tipped by cylinders 24 to cause the crate to roll away. The elevator then levels out and receives an empty crate. On the return movement of the carriage 6, rod 17 engages a stop 19, the carriers 13a-c close-up and the grippers are ready to receive the next batch of bottles from the table 3. The rearranging of the grippers may alternatively be effected by individual pneumatic plungers. The machine may be modified for unloading bottles from a crate by making the operating cycle of the machine depend on the successive arrival of loaded crates on the elevator instead of on the completion of a batch of bottles on the table 3. A pusher bar transfers bottles from the table to the conveyer 1 and the conveyer 26 can be .omitted, a conveyer similar to 25 extending across the end of conveyer 1. The machine has automatic and manually operated valves for effecting its movement in proper sequence and safety devices are provided, e.g. to prevent release of bottles from the grippers or lifting' of the elevator unless an emptty crate has moved into position to receive the bottles. Automatic means may :arrest the vertical movement of the elevator in the event of the bottles not entering clearly into the crate compartment, e.g. when a crate is misshapen or damaged. According to the Provisional Specification the grippers may incorporate air valves to be actuated by the bottle necks to initiate admission of air to or release of air from behind the rubber liners. A platform may be provided in line with the single line conveyer and the ranks of bottles .may be moved from the platform via a' dead-plate on to the marshalling conveyer by means of a pneumatic ram or rams. Alternatively the platform may be provided by successive faces of a polygonal cylinder which turns intermittently.