Patent GB-682526-A (GB)
Title: Inverting article containers
IPC: B65B21/22
Filed: 1950-01-13
Abstract: 682,526. Tipping apparatus. ERMOLD CO., E. Jan. 13, 1950. [Jan. 15, 1949] No. 934/50 Classes 78 (i) and 78 (iv). Apparatus for inverting containers comprises a pair of opposed gripping members spaced apart to receive a container and rotatable about aligned axes which pass substantially centrally through the areas of contact between the gripping members and the container, one or each of the gripping members also being capable of advancing toward and retracting away from the other gripping member for gripping and releasing a container, and means being provided for rotating the gripping members simultaneously about their aligned axes for partially inverting said container. Boxes C, from which bottles have been removed, are inverted to deposit the remaining litter of caps and broken glass by means of a pair of gripper heads 30, one placed each side of the path of the boxes, the boxes in turn being gripped between grippers 35 on the opposite heads, turned through 360 degrees and then lowered onto a delivery rollerway 56. Each head consists of two grippers 35 mounted on the ends of an arm 28 mounted on a shaft 22, Fig. 3, so that as one box is picked up from a receiving table 18 another is deposited on the delivery rollerway 56. A conveyer 10 driven from the bottle removing machine, not shown, feeds the boxes onto table 13 and the arm 28 on each side is rotated through its shaft 22 in synchronism with conveyer 10 through the medium of sprocket chains 17, 20. Each gripper 35, Figs. 3 and 4, consists of a pad 88 supported on a shaft 86 slidable in bearings in a tube 28<SP>1</SP> fixed to the arm 28. The arm 28 and grippers are housed in a casing 81 to which is secured an annular cam 43 providing a confining path for the rim of a roller 42 swivelly mounted on the end of shaft 36 remote from the pad 38. As arm 28 rotates, cam 43, through roller 42, presses one gripper 85 against the pressure of a spring 32 towards its opposite gripper 35 to grip a box on the receiving table 13 at C', carry it through position C<SP>11</SP> to position C<SP>111</SP> where cam 43 then allows the box to be released to fall on rollerway 56. During 72 degrees of this 180 degrees movement, while passing through the position C<SP>11</SP> the box is tipped over by a rack 53, secured to casing 31, which engages a pinion 51 keyed to shaft 36 and so rotates the gripper 85, a similar mechanism being provided on the head on the other side of the box. Each gripper is prevented from rotating before and after the tipping by a track 47 engaging two of four rollers 48 carried by a plate 49 secured to each shaft 36, the track 47 being discontinued in the vicinity of rack 53. The action of tracks 47 tilts the box through the angle which the arms 28 move before and after rack 53 is engaged by pinion 51, i.e. 108 degrees, so that for a 360 degrees rotation the rack 53 and pinion 51 are arranged to produce a 252 degrees rotation. The tipped out litter drops into a box 57 slidable underneath. The casings 31. of the heads are mounted on a frame 14 for transverse sliding movement towards and away from one another while frame 14 can in turn be moved vertically and longitudinally by screwed supports.