Patent GB-224412-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in machines for filling and capping bottles or other receptacles
IPC: B67C7/00
Filed: 1924-01-14
Abstract: 224,412. Rogers, F. H., (Cresco Creamery Supply Co.). Jan. 14, 1924. Bottling; capsules, applying. - In a machine for filling and capping milk bottles &c., a revoluble series of spaced receptacle-supporting seats are movable with and past the filling and closing mechanisms, and means is provided for transferring the seats from the filling orbits to the closing orbits and vice varsa. The filling-tank 19, Fig. 2, is rotatively supported on a standard 18 mounted in the central vertical bearing 17, and has depending valved filling-nozzles 19' against which the bottles B are raised by holders 20 carried on stems 21 supported by rollers 22 that run on a stationary cam-track 23. The stems 21 move in guides 26 near the periphery of a table 24 mounted to rotate about the standard 18, an antifriction bearing 25 being provided between the hub 24<1> of the table and the upper end of the bearing 17. A sleeve 27 secured to the top of the table 24 is screwed at its upper end 99 to engage an internally-screwed sleeve 28 secured to the underside of the tank 19. Locking-screws 101 threaded through bosses in the sleeve 28 engage in one or other of a series of longitudinal grooves 100 in the sleeve 27 and secure the tank in the adjusted position, gauge-marks or grooves 103 on the sleeve 27 indicating the adjustments for bottles of different sizes. Wing-plates 29 on the stems 21 have studs 30 to engage sockets in the bottle-holders 20, which are angularly adjustable on the stems to adapt the machines to bottles of different diameters. The axles 31 of the rollers 32 are mounted in the forked arms of fittings 32, Fig. 5, secured to the lower ends of the stems 21, and oppositely-extending arms 33 of the fittings have apertures 34 to receive pins 35 on the table 24. The length of the depressed portion 37 of the track 23 is such that when one of the stems 21 is in line with the lowest part of the drop 37, the corresponding holder is withdrawn from the filling nozzle and the rollers 22 of the next adjacent forward and rearward holder stems 21 are resting on the high part of the track, the adjacent forward holder being then located beneath a capping or closing mechanism 38 comprising a capping- cylinder 39 and a magazine 40 carried by vertically-reciprocating rods 41. The descent of a holder 20 is limited by engagement of the plate 29 with the guide 26, and the rollers 22 when released from the pins 35 are guided in their passage through the drop 37 by guide flanges 48. When a roller reaches the lowest part of the drop 37, it is engaged by a slotted disc 50 situated in an opening 49 in the track. The disc 50 is rocked on its axis 54 by a reciprocating toothed rack 56, Fig. 6, to rotate the holders so as to transfer the inner bottles on the holders from the inner or filling position to the outer or capping path of travel. A shaft 69 driven through worm gearing 72, 73 from the driving- shaft 74 carries an oblique arm 77 with a roller 79 on a stud 78 to engage notches 66 in a hollow spherical member 64 bolted to the underside of the table 24. A locking stud 80 opposite the arm 77 engages with shallow recesses 67 in the rim of the member 64 when the stud is disengaged from the notches 66. The rack 56 is carried by a shank 57 mounted on an endwisereciprocating shaft having at its inner end a hinged elongated shoe 91 to engage in cam grooves on the side of the wheel 72. The cam grooves have concentric parts 85, 86, Fig. 8, and eccentric parts 87, 88 which cross each other at 89. While the shoe 91 engages the concentric parts 85, 86 the transfer disc 50 is held stationary, and while the shoe is passing through the eccentric portion the shaft 58 is moved endwise and the disc is turned through 180‹. The rods 41 carrying the capping-mechanism are fixed at their lower ends to a horizontal yoke 97 which is engaged by a roller 96 on a pin 95 on the wheel 72. The bottle-holders are preferably formed to provide seats for a number of pairs of bottle of different capacities. Each holder 20, Fig. 1, is provided with three. pairs of seats Q, P, H with the axes of like seats in the same plane radial to the axis of the holder, and the rim 106 and lateral faces of the hub 107 are formed as short arcs on radii to correspond with the different diameters of the bottles. Fig. 15 shows a holder that can be adjusted to support three bottles of diffexent diameters by a single 90‹ angular shift of the holder. The bottoms of the quart seats Q<1> are depressed to form halfpint seats H', and the opposing curvatures 110<1>, 111<11> and 110<2>, 111<2> of the rim 110 and hub 111 respectively are so formed and opposed as to circmnferentially interlock with and hold the quart and pint bottles from sidewise displacement on the holders, the seats for the pint bottles overlapping the depressed half-pint seats, as shown in dotted lines.