CN117139313A

CN117139313A - Bottle unit carrier and cleaning machine with multiple bottle unit carriers

Info

Publication number: CN117139313A
Application number: CN202311121922.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: U·韦德曼; E·海因
Original assignee: KHS GmbH
Current assignee: KHS GmbH
Priority date: 2015-08-18
Filing date: 2016-06-15
Publication date: 2023-12-01
Also published as: EP3337626B1; EP3337626A1; WO2017028982A1; CN107847990A; BR112017028593B1; DE102015113668A1; BR112017028593A2

Abstract

The invention relates to a bottle (unit) carrier (10) for a cleaning machine, comprising an elongated carrier profile having a carrier part (12) which comprises two upwardly extending side flaps (14, 16) which are connected to the lower end thereof and which form a lower side wall part of the carrier profile, and an upper part which extends between the upper edges of the side flaps, the upper part having a horizontal middle section (22) and side sections (26, 28) which extend downwards on both sides of the middle section, the middle section having a receiving opening (24) for a bottle or bottle unit, the side sections forming an upper side wall part and being joined to the lower side wall part (14, 16) in the region of obtuse side edges (30), wherein the side sections (26, 28) of the upper part extend at an obtuse angle relative to the horizontal middle section (22) and the lower side wall part (14, 16) has a penetration (36).

Description

Bottle unit carrier and cleaning machine with multiple bottle unit carriers

The present application is a divisional application of patent application of 2016, 06 and 15, 201680046282.6, and entitled "bottle unit Carrier and cleaning machine having multiple bottle unit carriers".

Technical Field

The invention relates to a bottle (unit) carrier for a container cleaning machine, comprising an elongated carrier profile with upwardly extending flanks connected to the lower end thereof.

Background

One such bottle unit carrier is described, for example, in EP 1 281 447. The advantage of the bottle unit carrier is that it is very light and can be produced with little material outlay, which at the same time achieves significant energy savings during operation. A possible disadvantage of the bottle unit carriers is that there is not always a flow ratio for optimal cleaning action. The present invention relates not only to a carrier for bottle units but also to a carrier for directly receiving bottles. The concept bottle (unit) carrier is therefore used hereinafter. Hereinafter, these two concepts are used in synchronization and include both forms.

Disclosure of Invention

The object of the invention is to create a bottle (unit) carrier and also a cleaning machine with a plurality of bottle (unit) carriers, which are energy-efficient and allow better throughflow of the containers to be cleaned, in particular bottles.

The object of the invention is achieved by a bottle (unit) carrier according to the invention and by a cleaning machine comprising a plurality of bottle (unit) carriers according to the invention. An advantageous further development of the invention is that of the corresponding subsequent description.

According to the invention, the bottle (unit) carrier is formed by an elongated carrier profile, in particular integrally closed, which carrier profile is in particular formed by a metal plate. If the elongated carrier profile exceeds a certain length, the carrier profile can also be composed of a plurality of individual pieces, which have been connected to one another, for example by welding.

The carrier profile has a lower carrier part which comprises two flanks connected to its lower end and extending upwards and away from each other, which flanks form the lower side wall part of the carrier profile. The carrier profile furthermore comprises an upper part which extends between the upper edges of the flanks and has a horizontal middle section with a receiving opening for the bottle unit and side sections which extend downwards on both sides of the middle section and form an upper side wall part and adjoin a lower side wall part in the region of the obtuse-angled side edges. Since the lower side wall portions extend upwardly away from each other, the obtuse-angled side edges form the laterally outermost edges of the bottle unit carriers, seen in the lateral direction of the bottle unit carriers. The carrier profile constituting the bottle (unit) carrier therefore has a substantially hexagonal cross section, which gives the carrier profile a high rigidity and stability. The carrier profile can thus be produced from thinner plates, which saves energy costs. The rigid design of the carrier profile, which is closed in a multi-bending manner (hexagonally), thus achieves a reduced plate thickness of 4mm, 3.5mm, 3mm, in particular 2.5mm or less. A highly stable, ultra-light grid structure of the bottle unit carriers is achieved by an advantageous combination of the hexagonal rigid profile, which allows for a smaller material thickness of the plate for the bottle unit carriers, with a penetration in the lower side wall, which reduces the material weight of the bottle unit carriers, which enables an optimal degree of energy saving in cleaning operation. For this purpose, it is additionally stated that in each cleaning cycle the bottle unit carrier is heated in the cleaning machine, for example, to a cleaning bath temperature of approximately 80 degrees celsius and then cooled to an ambient temperature of approximately 15 degrees celsius. If it is additionally considered to clean more than 10000 bottles in the cleaning machine, in particular when the bottle unit carriers are subjected to a plurality of cleaning cycles and the heating/cooling phases associated therewith in the cleaning machine, it can be concluded that energy is saved in the cleaning machine.

If the bottle unit carriers in the cleaning machine are connected to the conveyor, which usually occurs on the end sides of the bottle unit carriers, the bottle unit carriers held side by side on the conveyor are placed with their obtuse-angled side edges against each other. The upper and lower sidewall portions extending above and below the obtuse side edges are offset back relative to the obtuse side edges. In this way, the distance between the bottle unit carriers can be minimized, since the upper and lower sidewall portions, which are offset back, may not come into contact if the bottle unit carriers placed side by side are tilted toward one another. The spacing of the obtuse-angled side edges of adjacent bottle unit carriers toward one another relative to one another can be reduced, for example, to values of less than 10mm, in particular less than 5mm, preferably less than 3mm or less. Thus, the cleaning agent flow from above does not run unused through the gaps between adjacent bottle unit carriers, but rather forcefully flows through the bottle units inserted into the bottle unit carriers and thus along the containers located therein. In this way, the same good cleaning action, for example, the separation of the labels, of the containers, in particular of the bottles, is thus achieved with a low pump power of the pump for the cleaning agent.

Preferably, the side sections of the upper part are inclined at an obtuse angle relative to the horizontal middle section. Both the edges between the middle section and the side sections of the upper part and the obtuse-angled side edges can be rounded or formed as sharp edges. Thus, the middle and side sections of the upper part may also be configured as uniform circles. In this case, for determining the angle between the middle section and the side sections, a tangent to the middle section on the center axis and a tangent to the side section on the edge region are used as references.

The invention can of course also be applied directly in bottle carriers which do not require additional bottle units.

Preferably, the vertical extension of the lower side wall portion is about 1.2 to 5 times greater than the vertical extension of the upper side wall portion, with the result that the obtuse-angled side edges of adjacent bottle unit carriers are opposed in a region lying further upwards in which they can be easily supported or transported in the cleaning machine. The swivel axis of the conveyor device of the cleaning machine can thus also be arranged between the obtuse-angled side edges of adjacent bottle unit carriers, which results in a large inclination angle relative to each other between said adjacent bottle unit carriers.

Preferably, the lower side wall portion forms an angle of between 120 ° and 175 ° with the upper side wall portion facing said lower side wall portion at an obtuse side edge, which results in that the obtuse side edges of adjacent bottle unit carriers can be separated by a distance of only a small gap, whereas the upper and lower side wall portions of adjacent bottle unit carriers do not touch when tilted relative to each other.

Preferably, the obtuse angle between the middle section of the upper part and each of the side sections is 95 ° to 120 °, which ultimately results in that not only the lower side wall sections but also the upper side wall sections of the flat cell carriers protrude laterally slightly outwards, so that the obtuse-angled side edges form the points of each bottle cell carrier that protrude furthest in the lateral direction, so that the obtuse-angled side edges of adjacent bottle cell carriers can be arranged exactly opposite one another in the cleaning machine, more precisely at the smallest possible distance. Thereby, erroneous flows are avoided very effectively and the bottle unit carriers can be tilted at a large angle with respect to each other. However, the upper part can of course also be formed as a circular segment.

Preferably, the area of all the through-openings of each lower sidewall portion has an area ratio of preferably 40% to 85%, in particular 40%, 45%, 50, 55, 60 or 65% to 70, 75, 80 or 85% of the total area of the lower sidewall portion. This results in that the material for the side wall parts can be limited to the structurally necessary amounts, which contributes to a reduction in the weight of the bottle unit carrier and thus to a high energy saving in the cleaning machine during heating/cooling, wherein the flow ratio and the stability of the bottle unit carrier are not negatively affected by the throughholes. Furthermore, flow losses are minimized not only when the cleaning liquid flows through the bottle unit carriers but also during transport in the cleaning machine transversely to the longitudinal direction of the cleaning machine.

Preferably, the carrier part and the upper part of the carrier profile consist of one component, in particular a sheet metal part, which is correspondingly stamped and bent. In this way, the bottle unit carrier can be manufactured advantageously and with material savings.

Preferably, the bottle unit carrier has one end plate on each of its two end sides, said end plates extending between the carrier part and the upper part. Each end plate has a preferably outwardly extending conveying section which is designed for connection, e.g. screw connection, with a conveying device of the cleaning machine in order to thereby convey the bottle unit carriers transversely to their longitudinal direction through the cleaning environment of the cleaning machine. The end plate thus enables a technically simple transport of each bottle unit carrier and furthermore gives each bottle unit carrier a certain structural rigidity.

Preferably, the conveying section is formed by an outwardly curved section of the end plate. The conveyor section and the end plate can thus be constructed in one piece, which is also advantageous from a manufacturing technology point of view with regard to material attack of the cleaning machine in the clean environment, from a chemical or electroplating point of view.

In an advantageous further development of the invention, the end plate has vertical sections on both sides of the conveying section, which are connected, in particular welded, to the upper part of the carrier profile. In this way, the rigidity and thus the strength of the carrier profile is further improved, which in turn enables a further reduction in the material thickness of the metal sheet for the bottle unit carrier.

Preferably, a cover element is arranged between the upper part and the end plate, which closes or covers the area between the last complete receiving opening in the upper part and the conveying section of the end plate. In this way, an incorrect flow is avoided, which results in a lower pump power of the cleaning agent pump of the cleaning machine. In addition, the rigidity and stability of the overall structure are improved.

In an advantageous further development of the invention, the two flanks of the bottle unit carrier are connected in their lower region by a transverse rib extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of the bottle unit carrier. This has the advantage that the flanks are not connected by a closed bottom region, but rather by a very light and on the other hand rigid rib structure which results in a high structural strength of the bottle unit carrier and on the other hand a low flow resistance when flowing through the bottle unit carrier from top to bottom. Furthermore, the material consumption is reduced by the structure, so that correspondingly produced bottle unit carriers can be put into clean operation in a very energy-saving manner.

In this case, the transverse ribs are preferably formed from a vertically extending sheet metal piece which extends, for example, up to half the vertical height of the lower side wall section, but this is not mandatory, so that the transverse ribs can also extend over more than half the vertical height. The use of vertically extending sheet metal elements as transverse ribs has the advantage that a strong stiffening of the entire bottle unit carrier is achieved. Preferably, the transverse ribs are laterally offset relative to the receiving opening in the longitudinal direction of the bottle unit carrier, so that they do not interfere with the arrangement of the bottle units in the bottle unit carrier.

Preferably, the upper side wall portion has no through-opening for the complete flow of the cleaning agent towards the bottle unit through the receiving opening for the bottle unit carrier, that is to say through or past the bottle unit or bottle after the bottle unit or bottle is introduced.

Furthermore, the invention relates to a cleaning machine comprising a plurality of bottle unit carriers corresponding to the previous embodiments. The cleaning machine has at least one conveyor device which is moved by a drive device and which carries the bottle unit carriers in the region of the end face of the bottle unit carriers or conveys the bottle unit carriers transversely to the longitudinal direction of the bottle unit carriers through the cleaning environment of the cleaning machine. The bottle unit carriers are arranged on the conveyor in such a way that the obtuse-angled lateral edges of adjacent bottle unit carriers have a distance of at most 10mm, preferably at most 5mm, in particular at most 3 mm. In this way, the flow losses due to incorrect flows through the gaps between adjacent bottle unit carriers are minimized, so that the flow along the bottles or the bottle units themselves is improved, and in turn the cleaning of the containers, in particular of the bottles, is also improved here. In this way, tags that are difficult to separate can be reliably removed in the cleaning machine, although the pump power is reduced. The energy saving achieved by the bottle (unit) carrier according to the invention is thus not only a smaller energy requirement due to the smaller mass of the bottle unit carrier during heating/cooling, but also a smaller pump power due to the cleaning pump.

Preferably, the cleaning machine has a conveyor element, for example a endless chain, as a conveyor device, which conveyor roller is moved through the cleaning environment on a roller guide. The circulating conveying element is connected to at least one conveying section of the bottle unit carrier, which is arranged on the bottle unit carrier, in particular in the region of the end face of the bottle unit carrier. The roller axis or the connecting axis between the two movable parts of the endless conveyor element is preferably located between the obtuse-angled lateral edges of the bottle unit carriers facing each other. By the rotation point between adjacent bottle unit carriers in the cleaning machine being said to lie between the obtuse-angled side edges, adjacent bottle unit carriers can be inclined relative to each other on the upwardly or downwardly curved roller guide, which results on the basis of the obtuse-angled side edges, even when the obtuse-angled side edges are arranged very closely next to each other, so that for example, the obtuse-angled side edges are almost touching, the upper side wall portions of adjacent bottle unit carriers are neither touching nor the lower side wall portions.

Preferably, each roller axis or each connecting axis of the parallel components of the endless conveyor element is arranged between two obtuse-angled side edges of adjacent bottle unit carriers facing each other in such a way that said axes lie in the region of a radius of at most 20mm, which radius surrounds the midpoint of the connecting line between the two obtuse-angled side edges. The bottle unit carriers thus always rotate about the center point of the connecting line between the obtuse-angled side edges facing one another, which results in that the upper side wall sections of adjacent bottle unit carriers neither touch nor the lower side wall sections even when the roller rail is offset more strongly upwards or downwards.

It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that the features of the independent claims may be present singly or in multiple, or may be composed of parts or sections. Furthermore, it is also obvious to a person skilled in the art that the embodiments of the aforementioned manner can be combined with one another in any manner.

Because the container carrier can be configured for receiving bottles or also for receiving bottle units, a conceptual bottle (unit) carrier is used, which includes both types of use.

The following names are used: obtuse angle = an angle greater than 90 degrees, particularly greater than 95 degrees and less than 180 degrees, particularly less than 170 degrees.

Drawings

The invention is described below, for example, with reference to the schematic drawings. In the drawings:

fig. 1 shows a perspective view of an end region of a bottle unit carrier;

fig. 2 shows a vertical section transverse to the longitudinal axis of the bottle unit carrier of fig. 1;

fig. 3a, b show perspective views of two embodiments of a cover element for covering an open gap between an upper part of the bottle unit carrier and an end plate of fig. 1;

fig. 4 shows a plurality of bottle unit carriers with bottle units inserted, which are arranged on the endless conveyor element of the cleaning machine;

FIG. 5 shows a top view of a portion of a cleaning machine having two endless conveyor chains and a plurality of bottle unit carriers held on the endless conveyor chains; and

fig. 6 shows a schematic side view of the region between two obtuse-angled side edges of two bottle unit carriers arranged side by side of the cleaning machine.

Detailed Description

The bottle unit carrier is formed from a carrier profile 10 which comprises a lower carrier part 12 in the form of a U-shaped profile, which has two upwardly extending side flaps 14, 16 which are connected to one another in their lower region by a transverse rib 18 which extends horizontally and transversely to the longitudinal axis L of the bottle unit carrier 10. In its upper region, the carrier profile 10 comprises an upper part 20 with a middle section 22 with a receiving opening 24 for the bottle unit and side sections 26, 28 connected to the middle section on both sides, which form upper side wall sections 26, 28. The upper side wall parts 26, 28 adjoin with their outer ends in the region of the obtuse-angled side edges 30 to the lower side wall parts 14, 16, which are formed by side flaps. The side sections 26, 28 forming the upper side wall portion have a slope of more than 90 ° relative to the horizontal middle section 22 of the upper portion 20, that is to say they form an obtuse angle with the horizontal middle section 22. The bottle unit carrier or carrier profile 10 has end plates 32 on both end sides, which are connected not only to the carrier part 12 of the bottle unit carrier or carrier profile but also to the upper part 10 of the bottle unit carrier or carrier profile. A portion of the end plate 32 is bent outwards and forms a conveying section 34 which can be connected, for example screwed, to a conveying device of the cleaning machine for conveying the bottle unit carriers 10. The end plate 32 has a vertical section 33, 35 on each side of the conveying section 34, which is connected, in particular welded, to the upper part 20. In this way, the stability of the overall structure of the carrier profile 10 is again increased, which in turn results in a smaller material thickness of the metal sheet, for example of the steel sheet.

The lower side wall sections 14, 16 of the bottle unit carriers 10 have large-area through-openings 36, as a result of which, on the one hand, the mass of the bottle unit carriers is significantly reduced and, on the other hand, a lower flow resistance of the bottle unit carriers is achieved. In addition, a receiving opening 24 for the bottle unit is formed in the middle section 22 of the upper part 20 in that the material of the middle section 22 is at least partially bent downwards from both sides of the horizontal web 38 and forms a substantially vertical guide edge 40 there, which on the one hand reinforces the structure and forms a guide for the bottle unit.

It should be added here that the upper side wall sections 26, 28 should not have a through-opening in order for the detergent flow, which occurs on the bottle unit carriers, in particular in a direction component transverse to the longitudinal axis of the bottle unit carriers, to flow virtually completely through the receiving opening 24 for the bottle unit carriers, that is to say through the receiving opening after filling of the bottle unit carriers.

The transverse ribs 18 for stiffening the lower side wall parts 14, 16 are preferably constructed in the form of vertical sheet metal plates, which is advantageous in terms of flow technology, since the entire bottom region between the two lower side wall parts 14, 16 is open for the cleaning agent to flow through from above. The transverse ribs are laterally offset relative to the receiving opening 24 such that they are located below the tabs 38. Due to the construction of the plate profile extending vertically and laterally between the lower side wall portions 14, 16, the transverse ribs 18 strengthen the rigidity of the overall carrier profile and not only minimize material requirements and thus energy costs for the bottle unit carrier.

A cutout 37 is formed in the angle between the upper part 20 and the end plate 32, said cutout extending between a tab 38 of the last complete receiving opening 24 in the upper part 20 and the conveying section 34 of the end plate 32. The recess 37 may be closed or covered by a cover element 42a, b as shown in fig. 3a and 3 b.

Fig. 2 shows the bottle unit carrier according to fig. 1 in a vertical cross section transverse to the longitudinal axis L of the bottle unit carrier 10. Accordingly, the angle α between the upper side wall portions 26, 28 and the respective lower side wall portions 14, 16 is preferably between 120 ° and 175 °.

The obtuse angle β between the middle section 22 and the side sections or upper sidewall portions 26, 28 of the upper portion 20 is preferably between 95 ° and 120 °.

Fig. 3a shows a first embodiment 42a of a cover element which can be arranged in the recess 37 between the upper part 20 and the end plate 32, for example welded there. The cover element 42a has a horizontal cover flap 44, which covers the upper part 20 between the last tab 38 in front of the end plate 32 and the edge to the end plate 32, and a vertical cover flap 46, which covers the region of the end plate 32 above the conveying section 34. The cover element 42a can optionally be fitted into the recess 37 of the bottle unit carrier 10 and welded to the upper part 20 and the end plate 32 in order to cover or close the recess 37. In this way, the stability of the bottle unit carrier 10 is increased and incorrect flow through the indentations 37 is reduced or prevented. This can reduce the pump power of the detergent pump.

Fig. 3b shows a cover element 42b which is largely identical to fig. 3a, and which, in addition to the horizontal cover flap 44 and the vertical cover flap 46, has a horizontal extension flap 48 in the extension of the horizontal cover flap 44. In the case of bottle unit carriers 10 mounted in conveyor 50, this horizontal extension web 49 protrudes from end plate 32 in the direction of endless chains 54, 56, 58 and reduces additional false flows there, which in turn can further reduce the pump power of the cleaning agent pumps arranged in the cleaning machine.

Fig. 4 shows a side view of a plurality of bottle unit carriers 10 held in a conveyor 50 of a cleaning machine with bottle units 52 inserted. The bottle unit 52 is variously constructed according to the type of bottle and is preferably composed of metal or plastic. The conveyor 50 is configured as an endless conveyor element, in particular as a endless chain, and comprises an outer rigid chain link 54 and an inner rigid chain link 56, which are connected to one another in the region of the conveyor rollers 58 in an articulated manner in the region of the corresponding roller axes 60. Preferably, the roller axes 60 lie exactly between the obtuse, accessible edges 30 of adjacent bottle unit carriers 10, with the result that, when the conveying rollers 58 are moved over a curved conveying path, the bottle unit carriers 10 can be moved relative to one another about axes perpendicular to the plane of view, while the associated upper side wall sections 26, 28 or lower side wall sections 16, 14 of adjacent bottle unit carriers cannot come into contact with one another, since the most protruding point in the transverse direction of each bottle unit carrier is the obtuse, lateral edge 30 of each bottle unit carrier. Thereby, the upper and lower sidewall sections of adjacent bottle unit carriers extend away from each other, which allows for a relatively large inclination angle of the adjacent bottle unit carriers with respect to each other. On the other hand, the obtuse-angled side edges of adjacent bottle unit carriers can thereby be arranged at a very small distance from one another, i.e. at a distance of less than 10mm and preferably less than 5mm, in particular less than 3mm, so that the obtuse-angled side edges are, for example, almost in contact. In this way, only a small amount of false flow flows through the gap between the two obtuse-angled side edges 30 of adjacent bottle unit carriers facing each other when flowing through the entire arrangement by means of a cleaning agent, for example from top to bottom. Instead, the entire flow of cleaning agent flows more or less through the bottle unit 52. Thus, the cleaning effect of the bottles located in the bottle unit is achieved by a significantly reduced pump power of the detergent pump.

Fig. 5 shows a section of the cleaning machine of fig. 4 from above in plan view IV, however without the bottle unit being inserted. It is apparent that the spacing between the obtuse-angled side edges 30 of adjacent bottle unit carriers toward one another is minimized so that substantially all of the cleaning agent that seeps in through the arrangement from above flows through the receiving opening 24 for the bottle unit 52. It is added here that the conveying section 34 of the bottle unit carrier 10 is shown exaggerated in the drawing so that it is virtually as good as if no cleaning agent had flowed as an erroneous flow through the region between the bottle unit carrier 10 and the circulating conveying element 50 of the cleaning machine. The drawing also shows a guide surface 62 for the transport rollers 58 of the endless transport element 50, which guide surface is embodied here as an endless chain.

Fig. 6 shows the region of the lateral edges of the bottle unit carriers 10 facing each other, which have lateral edges 30 and upper side wall sections 26, 28 and lower side wall sections 14, 16. The pivot axis 60 of the conveyor roller 58, which is also the pivot axis between the two links 54, 56 of the conveyor device, is located at the center point M between the straight lines G between the side edges 30 facing each other. In this way, the bottle unit carriers 10 can be tilted relative to one another, wherein a small distance between the obtuse-angled side edges 30 facing one another can be achieved.

It is obvious to the person skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but that it may instead be varied within the scope of the following claims.

List of reference numerals

10 bottle (unit) carrier, carrier section bar

12 carrier part

14 side wing plate (lower side wall part)

16 side wing plate (lower side wall part)

18. Transverse rib

20. Upper part

22. Horizontal intermediate section

24. Receiving opening for bottle unit

26 side section (Upper side wall part)

28 side section (Upper side wall part)

30. Obtuse-angle side edge

32. End plate

33. A first vertical section

34. Conveying section

35. Second vertical section

36. Through part

37 gap between upper part and end plate

38. Tab

40. Vertical guide edge

42a cover element for a notch (first embodiment)

42b cover element for notch (second embodiment)

44 horizontal cover flap for upper part

46 vertical cover flaps for end plates

48 horizontal extension flap for covering the gap between the end face and the conveyor

50 conveyor (circulation conveying element)

52. Bottle unit

54. Outer chain link

56. Inner chain link

58. Conveying roller

60. Roller axis

62 guide surface (roller rail)

Claims

1. A bottle (unit) carrier (10) for a cleaning machine, which bottle (unit) carrier is formed from an elongate carrier profile having a carrier portion (12) comprising two side flaps connected to its lower end and extending upwardly and away from each other, which side flaps form lower side wall portions (14, 16) of the carrier profile, and an upper portion (20) extending between the upper edges of the side flaps of the carrier portion, which upper portion has a horizontal middle section (22) with a receiving opening (24) for a bottle or bottle unit and side sections extending downwardly on both sides of the middle section, which side sections form upper side wall portions (26, 28) which in the region of obtuse side edges (30) engage the lower side wall portions (14, 16), wherein the lower side wall portions (14, 16) have a through-going portion and the upper side wall portions do not have a through-going portion, wherein the side edges (30) form a gap in the direction of each of the obtuse side edges (30) and the adjacent side edges of the carrier unit are arranged such that the bottle or bottle units are not in contact each other in the direction of the obtuse angle and the adjacent side edges of the carrier unit are arranged such that the bottle or the bottle units are not in contact with each other.

2. Bottle (unit) carrier according to claim 1, wherein the obtuse-angled side edges (30) of the adjacent bottle (unit) carriers (10) have a spacing of at most 10mm, in particular at most 5mm, preferably at most 3 mm.

3. Bottle (unit) carrier according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the area of the through-holes (36) in the lower side wall portion occupies an area ratio of 40% to 85%, in particular 50, 55, 60 or 65% to 70, 75, 80 or 85% of the total area of the lower side wall portion (14, 16).

4. The bottle (unit) carrier according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the vertical extension of the lower side wall portion (14, 16) is 1.2 times (120%) to 5 times the vertical extension of the upper side wall portion (26, 28).

5. The bottle (unit) carrier according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the lower side wall portion (14, 16) encloses an angle (a) with the upper side wall portion (26, 28) between 120 degrees and 175 degrees at the obtuse side edge (30).

6. The bottle (unit) carrier according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the side sections (26, 28) of the upper part (20) extend at an obtuse angle with respect to the middle section (22) of the upper part.

7. The bottle (unit) carrier according to claim 6, wherein the obtuse angle (β) between the middle section (22) and the side sections (26, 28) is between 95 and 120 degrees.

8. Bottle (unit) carrier according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the carrier profile with the carrier part (12) and the upper part (20) is constructed as a closed, preferably integral, in particular a profile composed of sheet metal.

9. Bottle (unit) carrier according to any one of the preceding claims, having one end plate (32) on each of its two end sides, which extends between the carrier part (12) and the upper part (20) and has a conveying section (34) which preferably extends outwards.

10. Bottle (unit) carrier according to claim 9, wherein the end plate (32) has vertical sections (33, 35) on both sides of the conveying section, which are connected, in particular welded, with the upper part (20) of the carrier profile (10).

11. Bottle (unit) carrier according to claim 9 or 10, wherein a cover element (42 a, b) is arranged between the upper part (20) and the end plate (32), which closes or covers the area between the last complete receiving opening (24) in the upper part (20) and the end plate (32), in particular the conveying section (34) of the end plate (32).

12. Bottle (unit) carrier according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the two flanks (14, 16) are connected in their lower region by a transverse rib (18) extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of the bottle unit carrier.

13. Bottle (unit) carrier according to claim 12, wherein the transverse rib (18) is formed by a vertically extending sheet metal piece which is arranged laterally offset in the longitudinal direction of the carrier profile with respect to a receiving opening (24) in the middle section (22) of the upper part (20).

14. A cleaning machine comprising a plurality of bottle (unit) carriers (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising at least one conveying device (50) which is moved by a drive device and which carries the bottle unit carriers in the region of the end sides thereof and conveys them transversely to the longitudinal direction (L) of the bottle unit carriers through the cleaning environment, wherein the obtuse-angled side edges (30) of adjacent bottle (unit) carriers (10) have a distance of at most 10mm, in particular at most 5mm, preferably at most 3 mm.

15. The cleaning machine according to claim 14, wherein the conveying device (50) has a circulating conveying element (50) comprising conveying rollers (58) which move through the cleaning environment on roller guides (62) and which are connected to the conveying sections (34) of the bottle (unit) carriers (10), wherein the roller axes (60) and/or the pivot axes between the rigid links (54, 56) of the circulating conveying element lie between the obtuse-angled side edges (30) of adjacent bottle unit carriers facing each other.

16. A cleaning machine according to claim 15, wherein each roller axis/swivel axis (60) is located in the region of a radius of at most 20mm, which radius surrounds the midpoint (M) of a connecting line (G) between two obtuse-angled side edges (30) of adjacent bottle (unit) carriers (10) facing each other.