Patent GB-575483-A (GB)
Title: Topping machine for canning
IPC: B65B1/24
Filed: 1943-07-30
Abstract: 575,483. Cap-topping machines. DAVIES, L. E. July 30, 1943, No. 12417. [Class 94 (i)] [Also in Group VI] A topping machine, used in the canning of food between the filling of the can and its closure in order to depress the material in the can and so provide a headspace for the can top, comprises a conveyer for moving containers progressively in a series at constant speed, a plunger for engaging the material in the containers, means for guiding the plunger above the path of the containers in a vertical orbit having less curvature below its horizontal axis than above its horizontal axis, and means for moving the plunger cyclically in this orbit in timed relationship with the movement of the containers. The plunging movement is relatively slow during the period in which the plunger is depressing the material within the container, and a material of delicate structure, such as peeled fruit, is thus less likely to become bruised. In the machine illustrated three plunger guides 46, in each of which is mounted a pressing plunger having a head 47 on stem 48, are mounted on a carrier 40 which is supported by means of bearing 41 on crank discs 30 and 31. The crank discs 30 and 31 are rotated at the same speed by shafts 18 and 20 respectively projecting from casing 17. Carrier 40 is thus given a cyclic movement alongside casing 17, the carrier remaining horizontal. The bearings 41 on carrier 40 can slide horizontally on trackways 42 in the carrier 40. At the middle of the carrier 40 is a vertical slot 52 in which hub 36, in bushing 37, can move. The other end of hub 36, in bushing 38, fits in an arcuate slot 55 defined by margins 56a and 57a of guide member 56, 57 on casing 17. Hub 36 is connected pivotally by link 35 to crank 32 which is fixed on a shaft 19 projecting from casing 17, which shaft is rotated at the same speed as shafts 18 and 20. As crank 32 is rotated by revolution of shaft 19, hub 36 is directed in a path defined by the edges 57a and 57b of the guide member and slides vertically in slot 52. The extent of reciprocal horizontal movement of the carrier 40 is a distance T and the extent of reciprocal vertical movement of the carrier 40 is the diameter of the circle O described by the centres of crank discs 30, 31 in their rotation about the centres of shafts 18, 20. As guide profile 57a is of greater radius than guide profile 57b, the acceleration of the carrier horizontally while travelling through the lower portion of its orbit is less than that while travelling through the upper portion of its orbit and in this way the horizontal movement of the carrier in the lower portion of its orbit is rendered more nearly uniform. Filled containers are spaced at equidistant intervals on conveyer belt 10 by the helical flange 15a of screw conveyer 15 and each spaced container is engaged by one of the flights 60 on chain 61. The spacing of the flights corresponds to the spacing of the plunger heads 47 and the rate of advancement of the flights corresponds approximately with the rate of horizontal advancement of carrier 40 while it is travelling through the lower portion of its orbit.