EP1357082B1

EP1357082B1 - An apparatus for preparing the bottles to be labelled in a bottling plant

Info

Publication number: EP1357082B1
Application number: EP02425269A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Giovanni Sardi; Giovanni Colla
Original assignee: Cames SNC Di Colla G & Sardi G
Current assignee: Cames SNC Di Colla G & Sardi G
Priority date: 2002-04-26
Filing date: 2002-04-26
Publication date: 2004-08-11
Anticipated expiration: 2022-04-26
Also published as: DE60200934T2; EP1357082A1; ES2224043T3; ATE273236T1; DE60200934D1

Abstract

The present invention concerns an apparatus (1) for use in a bottling plant in order to prepare bottles previously filled and corked (capped) to labelling. The apparatus comprises at least a station (200) for heating the bottles (3), a station (100) for washing the bottles (3), a station (400) for drying the bottles (3) and a conveyor line (15, 17, 21) on which the bottles (3) are conveyed in alignment and in upright position through the stations of the apparatus (1). The apparatus (1) preferably also comprises a rinsing station (300) located between the heating station (200) and the drying station (400) in the advancing direction of the bottles. <IMAGE>

Description

The present invention relates to an apparatus for use in a bottling plant, which apparatus is capable of performing all operations necessary for preparing bottles already filled and closed for the bottling phase.
More particularly, the invention concerns an apparatus for washing the external surfaces of the bottles, bringing the bottles to ambient temperature, should they have been bottled at a temperature other than ambient temperature, and rinsing and drying the outside surfaces thereof, so that the bottles can be directly transferred to the labelling station.
The present invention is especially concerned with plants for bottling products, such as champagne-type sparkling wines, for which the bottles are filled at low temperature.
The large bottling plants generally comprise a series of automated apparatuses performing the several operations of the bottling cycle, such as washing and drying the inside of the bottles, filling the bottles, corking or capping the bottles, washing and drying the bottle outside, labelling and packaging the bottles.
When bottling special products, such as champagne-type wines and other sparkling wines, bottle filling takes place at very low temperature, close to 0°C, since wine is stored at such temperature. Since the subsequent labelling step takes place at ambient temperature, generally close to 25°C, to avoid condensate formation and the consequent defects in label application, it is necessary to provide, before the labelling station, an automated apparatus bringing the bottles from bottling temperature to ambient temperature.
Moreover, while a simple rinsing of the external surface is sufficient after bottle filling and before labelling in case of products bottled at ambient temperature, in case of products bottled at low temperature the peculiar features of the bottling phase require an actual washing of the external surfaces of the bottles before labelling.
In present plants, bottle washing and heating are performed immediately after bottle closing and are followed by rinsing and drying the external surfaces of the bottles.
A first problem related with the above described process is that, according to the prior art, it is customary to use four separate apparatuses for the four different phases of bottle washing, preheating, rinsing and drying. The presence of four different apparatuses and of means for transferring the bottles from one apparatus to another entails a considerable size and may be a problem of rather difficult solution, especially for medium and small wine producers.
An example of bottle drying apparatus is disclosed in patent application EP 1,028,300.
According to the prior art, the bottles are heated either by randomly immersing them into a water-containing tank and then injecting high-temperature steam into the tank, or by moving the bottles, randomly arranged on a conveyor belt, through downwards directed water jets. Yet, in those kinds of equipment, the impossibility of setting a fixed time, identical for all bottles, of permanence of the bottles in the heating station compels to use water at very high temperature (about 70°C), with two consequent major drawbacks: on the one side, the high energy cost for causing so high a temperature variation in a considerable liquid mass; on the other side, the risk of negatively affecting the quality of the wine contained in the bottles, that risk being particularly significant for bottles remaining in the heating station longer than an average time.
Therefore, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a single integrated and compact apparatus allowing the cold bottles to be prepared for the labelling at ambient temperature, by sequentially carrying out the four phases mentioned above.
Another problem, mainly related with the heating phase, is the high acoustic pollution caused by collisions among bottles on the conveyor lines.
Therefore, it is a second object of the present invention to provide an apparatus exhibiting a reduced noise level.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus allowing setting predetermined heating time and modalities that are identical for all bottles. This allows, i. a., using water at mild temperature (about 30°C).
As to the rinsing phase, it is the primary object of the invention to perform an effective and complete rinsing of the external surface of the bottles, in the smallest possible space, so as to reduce the overall size of the apparatus.
The above and other objects are achieved by an apparatus for preparing the bottles to labelling, as defined in the appended claims.
According to the invention, the advancing of the bottles inside each station and the passage from one station to the next one take place by means of a conveyor line, e. g. a set of conveyor belts, on which the bottles are kept aligned and in upright position.
Advantageously, according to the invention, said conveyor line is divided into a plurality of sections, of which the lengths and the mutual arrangement can be chosen depending on the needs, and in particular so as to reduce the overall size of the apparatus.
The simplest solution in order to reduce the apparatus size is to provide parallel sections in which the bottles advance in opposite directions.
In this respect, the invention provides for introducing means capable of forcing the transfer of the bottles from one section to another in said conveyor line, even when the different line sections are not arranged in the same direction.
The reduction of the apparatus size attainable according to the invention allows enclosing said apparatus into a compact structure. Thus, reduction of the level of acoustic pollution in the environment where the apparatus is used is possible.
Noise reduction in the apparatus is moreover favoured in that collisions are greatly reduced, as the bottles are orderly aligned on the conveyor line.
Further, thanks to the fixed and aligned arrangement, the order of the bottles when entering the apparatus according to the invention is exactly the same as when leaving said apparatus and that order is kept throughout the whole cycle inside the apparatus.
Consequently, all bottles remain for the same time interval within the apparatus and, in particularly, within each station, and such time interval can be previously known and can be modified according to the needs, by simply varying the advancing speed of the conveyor belt.
This feature is especially convenient during the heating phase: indeed, a suitable time of permanence in the corresponding station can be set and hence it is possible to use water at lower temperature than normally used in the prior art systems for heating the bottles.
Advantageously, given the lower energy supply required, it is possible and sufficient to exploit heat developed by the turbines of the drying station to bring water to the requested temperature, with consequent economic savings.
The apparatus according to the invention is especially intended for plants for bottling cold bottles, but it includes an additional conveyor line bypassing the washing and heating stations: thus, the apparatus could be introduced also into a general bottling plant, used also for bottles filled at ambient temperature, which merely demand the rinsing and drying phases.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will be better described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the apparatus according to the invention;
Fig. 2 is a side view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is an internal side view of the heating station of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the conveying device of the heating station of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 5 is a side view of the rinsing station of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 6 is a block diagram of the water heating circuit;
Fig. 7 is a plan view of the apparatus according to an alternative embodiment of the invention.

With reference to Fig. 1, there is shown an apparatus according to the invention, generally denoted by reference numeral 1. The apparatus has a substantially rectangular shape when viewed in plan, and it is defined by a base 5a, side walls 5b - 5e and a roof 5f.
A washing station 100, a heating station 200, a rinsing station 300 and lastly a drying station 400 can be distinguished inside apparatus 1, in the advancing direction of the bottles (from the left to the right in the drawing).
In a bottling plant, apparatus 1 is generally located past the bottling and corking (capping) machines and before the labelling machines. Once the bottling and corking (capping) phase is over, the bottles are fed to apparatus 1 by a conveyor belt 15, which conveys the bottles, through entrance opening 9 provided in side wall 5e, into apparatus 1 and specifically to washing station 100.
Washing station 100 comprises a screw conveyor 101, located alongside conveyor belt 15 and intended to uniformly space the incoming bottles so as to facilitate their insertion into semicircular sockets 103 of a first rotating circular distributor 105. Clearly, the pitch of screw 101 corresponds with the distance between two consecutive sockets 103.
Said first distributor 105 transfers the bottles onto one of rotating bases 109 provided on a rotating circular carousel 111. After being deposited onto rotating bases 109, the bottles are blocked from above by pressing caps located above carousel 111.
A brush 113, rotating in the opposite direction with respect to rotating bases 109 and to carousel 111, is mounted at the centre of rotating carousel 111, for washing the external surfaces of the bottles through water jets from nozzles laterally disposed with respect to carousel 111.
Possibly, water from said nozzles could have been previously mixed with a detergent so as to increase washing effectiveness. In the alternative, the effectiveness of the cleaning action could be increased by using high-pressure water jets.
A second rotating circular distributor 119, equipped with semicircular sockets 117, picks up the bottles from carousel 111 and transfers them again onto conveyor belt 15 wherefrom the bottles were previously taken.
A wall 107, properly shaped with curved profiles corresponding to the curvatures of distributors 105 and 119 and of carousel 111, is provided for maintaining the bottles inside semicircular sockets 103 and 117 while the bottles are being transferred from belt 15 to rotating carousel 111 and from the latter again to conveyor belt 15.
After leaving station 100, the bottles continue their path inside apparatus 1, on conveyor belt 15, up to heating station 200.
Inside station 200, a bottle conveyor line 17 is provided, which guides the aligned and upright bottles along a zigzag path.
Said conveyor line 17 comprises a plurality of parallel conveyor belts 17a, 17b, 17c, 17d, each moving in opposite direction with respect to the adjacent ones. Still referring to Fig. 1, conveyor belts 17a and 17c move from the right to the left, and belts 17b and 17d from the left to the right.
Advantageously, not all of said conveyor belts have the same lengths. The first sections 17a, 17b have a length corresponding with the distance between washing station 100 and right hand wall 5c of apparatus 1. Once the zigzag path has brought conveyor line 17 beyond washing station 100, subsequent sections 17c, 17d of said line 17 extend from left hand wall 5e to right hand wall 5c of apparatus 1.
In the whole, according to the invention, conveyor line 17 so defined allows the bottles to travel along a path wholly covering a rectangular area inside apparatus 1, apart from the space occupied by washing station 100.
Conveyor belts 17a, 17b, 17c, 17d are separated by partitions 219 defining a rectilinear channel or path of which the width only just exceeds the diameter of bottles 3 moving on the belt.
Conveyor belts 17a - 17d further co-operate with a wall 203, located at the right-hand side of apparatus 1, in correspondence with right-hand wall 5c, and with two walls 209 and 213, located at the right-hand side of said apparatus 1. Taking into account what has been described and shown, clearly wall 209 will be located immediately on the right of washing station 100, whereas wall 213 will be located in correspondence with left-hand wall 5e of apparatus 1. Walls 203, 209 and 213 are preferably made of members of metal sheet, plastics or any other material, with substantially rectangular development, and are so shaped as to define, on their sides facing conveyor belts 17a - 17d, corresponding semicircular concave portions 201, 207, 211, the radius of which substantially corresponds with the distance between two adjacent partitions 219 and hence with the width of the passage for bottles 3 in the channel defined between the two partitions 219.
Fig. 1 further shows the means provided according to the invention to force the bottles to transversally pass from a conveyor belt to the subsequent one. Such means comprise a set of deflecting nozzles 215, provided in each concave portion 201, 207, 211 and inclined by about 45° with respect to the advancing direction of bottles 3, so as to send pressure fluid jets, e.g. water jets, against the external surfaces of bottles 3 and consequently to favour the change of direction of the bottles and to transfer them onto the adjacent belt moving in opposite direction.
In the embodiment shown, nozzles 215 are arranged along a pipe 217a and are fed with the same liquid as used for heating the bottles, as it will be disclosed hereinbelow. Consequently, the water jets from said nozzles 215 not only cause the transfer of the bottles from a conveyor belt to another, but they also contribute to bottle heating.
It is to be appreciated that, in a possible variant of the described embodiment, also the nozzles of water station 100 described above can be fed with heated water. Thus, the heating action could already begin simultaneously with the washing phase. It will be appreciated that, as it will become apparent below, water used for heating the bottles will be recycled several times for sake of energy saving. Consequently, water circulating in pipes 217a is not very clean. Yet, such water can be used for feeding the nozzles of washing station 100 thanks to the provision of rinsing station 300, past heating station 200, where the bottles are subsequently cleaned from impurities, if any, deposited during heating, as it will be better disclosed hereinafter.
Fig. 1 further shows a detail of the structure of conveyor belts 17a - 17d. The belts consist of a set of mutually articulated meshes 19 of plastic material. Said meshes 11 have a plurality of holes with such a size that they let water used inside apparatus 1 flow away.
Upon completion of the zigzag path through heating station 200, the bottles are transferred to conveyor line 21, conveying them through rinsing and drying stations 300, 400. To this aim, the apparatus according to the invention comprises a motor-driven rotating disc 301, preferably made of a spongy material, located in correspondence with the last semicircular concave portion 211a of wall 213. Said disc 301 is to transfer bottles 3 from the last section 17c of conveyor line 17 along a semicircular path defined by the contour of said portion 211a. Said portion 211a has a greater diameter than previous portions 211 due to the greater width of conveyor line 21.
Advantageously, conveyor line 21 begins outside apparatus 1 and enters the apparatus through an additional entrance opening 25 provided in wall 5e. Thus, conveyor line 21 acts as a by-pass in respect of the first two stations of apparatus 1 and is particularly useful for the bottles that need not to be heated, since they have been filled at ambient temperature.
Advantageously, conveyor line 21 comprises a pair of adjacent and parallel conveyor belts 21a 21b, supporting the bases of bottles 3 with half of each base resting on a belt and the other half resting on the other belt.
Conveyor belts 21a 21b advance at different speeds. This way, during the advancing movement of the belts, a rotating motion at constant speed around their axes is also imparted to bottles 3.
By properly adjusting the speeds of belts 21a, 21b, it is possible to impart to bottles 3 a desired advancing speed as well as a number of rotations suitable to ensure a complete rinsing and drying of bottles 3.
Moreover, conveyor belts 21a, 21b are inclined towards the centre line of conveyor line 21 by an angle of 1° to 5°, so that the conveying surface on which bottles 3 rest has a substantially V-shaped transversal cross section.
Bottles 3, advancing and rotating on conveyor belts 21a,21b, are conveyed through rinsing station 300.
Said station 300, which will be described in greater detail hereinafter, is enclosed within a protection structure 307 of stainless steel and consists of three sets of nozzles 305, arranged on the sides of and above conveyor line 21. Nozzles 305 are fed by piping circuit 303, in which clean water at ambient temperature circulates and which is divided into a duct 303a on the right of conveyor line 21, a duct 303b in correspondence with the centre line of said conveyor line 21 and a duct 303c on the left thereof.
A screw conveyor 401 is located alongside conveyor line 21 at the exit from rinsing station 300 and is intended to ensure that bottles 3 are properly spaced when entering drying station 400.
Said station 400 is constructed in known manner, in particularly according the teaching of patent application EP 1,028,300.
As better shown in Fig. 2, drying of the external surfaces of bottles 3 is carried out by making hot air streams (at about 60°C) impinge against said bottles 3.
A pair of ducts 407 are arranged alongside conveyor line 21, such ducts hanging from roof 5f of apparatus 1 through brackets 409.
Said ducts 407 are suitably inclined with respect to the conveying surface along conveyor line 21, downwards in the bottle advancing direction, starting at a level corresponding to the corks (caps) of bottles 3 and down to a level corresponding to the bases of said bottles 3.
Advantageously, said air streams are obtained through a plurality of holes provided along each duct 407 and directed towards the centre line of conveyor line 21. While the bottles advance along conveyor line 21, thanks to the rotation of bottles 3 about their axis and to the particular arrangement of ducts 407, a spiral drying action is obtained, from top to down, that drags downward the film of water covering bottles 3 and ensures a complete drying of their external surfaces.
A compressor, placed outside apparatus 1, produces a flow of forced air inside the ducts 407 through circuit 411.
Once dried, bottles 3 advance on conveyor line 21 through the exit opening 11 provided in wall 5c and out of apparatus 1, and move towards the labelling station.
Fig. 2 further shows guides 27 arranged parallel to conveyor line 21 so as to keep bottles 3 on corresponding conveyor belts 21a, 21b during the translation along the conveyor line. Said guides are horizontally adjustable so as to suit the different formats, and in particular the different diameters, of the bottles being introduced into apparatus 1. Guides 27 are supported by supporting brackets 29. By acting upon handles 31, it is possible to horizontally displace said brackets relative to supports 29, thereby moving guides 27 closer to or farther from each other, according to the needs.
Fig. 2 further clearly shows that apparatus 1 has a compact structure, completely closed and with limited size. Carrying out the bottle washing, heating, rinsing and drying operations inside a closed structure allows, i. a., reducing the noise generated by apparatus 1.
Fig. 2 further shows that side walls 5b-5e include a set of inspection doors 13 allowing maintenance operations. A cabinet 7 containing electrical equipment and control and emergency pushbuttons for apparatus 1 is further mounted on the upper portion of wall 5e.
Figs. 3 and 4 show in detail heating station 200.
Fig. 3 shows the means for heating bottles 3. Such means essentially comprise a set of spraying nozzles 223 arranged along the whole length of conveyor belts 17a - 17d. In the embodiment shown, nozzles 223 are located above bottles 3, in correspondence with the centre line of conveyor belts 17a - 17d and are downwards directed. Nozzles 223 emit water jets at a temperature higher than that of bottles 3, said jets impinging against the outer surfaces of said bottles 3.
It will be appreciated that, according to the scheme of the invention, all bottles 3 remain inside heating station 200 for the same time interval, and such time interval is settable according to the needs, by simply acting on the advancing speed of conveyor belts 17a - 17d. Thus, by increasing the permanence time of bottles 3 in heating station 200, it is possible to lower the temperature of the water used to heat the bottles according to the needs. Referring to the illustrated embodiment, the water coming out from spraying nozzles 223 may be at a temperature in the range 25°C to 30°C, such temperature being sufficient to effectively bring bottles 3 to ambient temperature in such a reasonable time that the bottling plant is not slowed down.
Always referring to Fig. 3, water used to heat bottles 3 passes through the perforated meshes 11 of conveyor belts 17a - 17d and is collected by a tray 221 with inclined bottom located beneath conveyor belts 17a - 17d and communicating with a recovery tank 239. Water is taken from recovery tank 239 by means of a pump 237 feeding piping circuit 217, including i. a. pipes 217a equipped with deflecting nozzles 215 and pipes 217b equipped with nozzles 223 for heating the bottles.
Due to thermal exchange with bottles 3 and to possible dispersions, water collected in recovery tank 239 is at lower temperature than water coming out from nozzles 223 and 215. Thus, it is necessary to provide heating means to maintain water in piping circuit 217 at constant temperature.
According to the scheme of the invention, making an integrated structure containing, in a limited room, the four different stations described, allows an interaction between the devices in the different stations and, in particular, allows exploiting the compressor in drying station 400 to bring water in heating station 200 to the desired temperature.
Turning to the block diagram shown in Fig. 6, compressor 403 sends hot air into ducts 407 through circuit 411. The temperature of the wall of compressor 403 can readily be as high as or higher than 80°C. Taking into account the limited temperature (25 - 30°C) required for water used in heating station 200, it is advantageous to include a heat exchanger 404 in piping circuit 217, in correspondence with said compressor 403, so that heat irradiated by said compressor 403 heats water in pipes 217 and compensates heat loss due to thermal exchange with bottles 3 and to possible dispersions.
Advantageously, by such an arrangement, apparatus 1 can be a completely self-standing apparatus, since an external heat source is not required to bring water to the desired temperature.
Turning back to Fig. 3, the driving mechanism of conveyor belts 17a - 17d is shown. Such belts are driven by the rotation of pinions 225 and 227, respectively, of which the teeth are such that they engage the holes in the plastic mesh forming belts 17a - 17d. Pinions 225 and 227 are in turn driven into rotation by gear motors 233 and 235 through chains 229 and 231.
Turning now to Fig. 4, each section 17a - 17d of conveyor line 17 runs on inverted-T bearings 241. Bearings 241 support conveyor belts 17a - 17d on both sides, while leaving the central belt portions free, to allow water used for heating bottles 3 to flow away through meshes 19 forming said belts 17a - 17d.
Fig. 4 shows in detail the structure of partitions 219 used to avoid contact between bottles advancing in different directions.
More particularly, Fig. 4 shows that partitions 219 comprise a portion 219a secured to bearings 241 and two movable portions 219b which, advantageously, can have different thickness depending on the sizes of bottles 3 to be heated. Movable portions 219b comprise a set of bearing foots 245, which are received in corresponding grooves 243 provided in the bases of bearings 241.
In that manner, movable portions 219b can be quickly removed and replaced with portions of different thickness, so as to adapt the width of the channel in which the bottles move to the bottle diameter.
It will be further appreciated that the arrangement of the spraying nozzles shown in Fig. 4 does not correspond with the arrangement shown in Fig. 3. Indeed, Fig. 4 shows a variant of the invention, in which spraying nozzles 223 are located at a lower level, preferably on a horizontal plane substantially passing through the bottle necks. Nozzles 223 therefore are at a lower level than the corks (caps) of bottles 3 and are so oriented that the water jets impinge against the side surface of bottles 3 below the neck, where the amount of liquid contained in a bottle to be heated is greater.
Fig. 4 also shows further spraying nozzles 251, which can be included into apparatus 1 thanks to the arrangement of conveyor belts 17a - 17d. Nozzles 251 are located beneath conveyor belts 17a - 17d and are upwards oriented, so that water impinges against the bottle bottoms, where the amount of liquid to be heated is greater.
Similarly to nozzles 223, also nozzles 251 are arranged along a section 217c of hydraulic circuit 217 supplying all nozzles of apparatus 1 with warm water.
Fig. 5 shows in detail rinsing station 300.
Bottles 3 advance on conveyor line 21 while being guided by guides 27, of which the level and the horizontal position are adjusted depending of the format of bottles 3 themselves inside a parallelepiped protection structure 307 of stainless steel.
Nozzles 305, emitting the clean water used for rinsing the external surfaces of the bottles, are arranged along ducts 303a and 303c, located on the sides of conveyor line 21, and duct 303b located along the centre line of said conveyor line 21, at a level above bottles 3.
Similarly to the construction of the drying system described above, ducts 303a and 303c are inclined with respect to said conveyor line 21, downwards in the bottle advancing direction, starting from a level corresponding to the corks (caps) of bottles 3 down to a level corresponding with the bases of said bottles 3.
While the bottles advance along conveyor line 21, thanks to the rotation of bottles 3 about their axis due to the different speeds of conveyor belts 21a, 21b, a spiral rinsing action is obtained, from top to down, that drags downward the impurities covering bottles 3 and ensures a complete rinsing of their external surfaces.
Fig. 7 refers to a second embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention, including only three stations. The same reference numerals have been used to denote parts identical to those already described with reference to the preceding Figures.
To reduce the size of apparatus 1, the rinsing station has been eliminated and a washing station 100' has been placed past a heating station 200'.
According to the present embodiment, the bottles, if they are at low temperature, are placed onto conveyor belt 15 conveying them inside apparatus 1', and more particularly to heating station 200', through entrance opening 9. On the contrary, bottles already at ambient temperature are placed onto conveyor belt 21 conveying them directly to washing station 200', through the second entrance opening 25.
It will be appreciated that, as far as drying station 400' is concerned, conveyor line 420' conveying the bottles through the drying means is divided into two parallel sections 421', 422' moving in opposite directions, so as to reduce the longitudinal size of station 400' and, consequently, the overall size of apparatus 1.
In accordance with the scheme described with reference to Fig. 2, in which a pair of downwards inclined ducts are provided, the upper halves of the bottles are dried while the bottles advance along section 421' on conveyor belts 421a', 421b', and the lower halves of the bottles are dried while the bottles advance along section 422' on conveyor belts 422a', 422b'. In order to transfer the bottles from the first section 421' to the second section 422' of conveyor line 420', a motor-driven rotating disc 423', preferably of a spongy material, is used. A shaped wall 425' is located in correspondence with said disc 423', said wall having a semicircular concave portion, of which the radius corresponds with the width of conveyor line 420'. Thus, thanks to disc 423', the bottles pass from section 421' to the subsequent section 422' of conveyor line 420' along a semicircular path defined by wall 425'.
Once the drying operation is over, the bottles are again transferred from conveyor line 420' to conveyor line 21' thanks to the provision of two shaped walls 425', 427' which properly guide the bottles.

Claims

An apparatus (1) for preparing bottles (3), previously filled and corked or capped to labelling, characterised in that it comprises at least:

a heating station (200) for heating said bottles (3), to bring said bottles to a temperature close to ambient temperature;

a washing station (100) for washing said bottles (3);

a drying station (400) for drying said bottles (3);

a conveyor line (15, 17, 21) on which the bottles (3) are conveyed in mutual alignment and in upright position through the stations of the apparatus (1), so that the order of the bottles (3) is kept unchanged from the entrance to the exit of the apparatus (1).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a rinsing station (300), located between the heating station (200) and the drying station (400) in the direction of advance of the bottles.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that the washing station (100) is before said heating station (200).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein said apparatus is enclosed within a structure defined by a base (5a), side walls (5b - 5e) and a roof (5f) and enclosing all stations being part of the apparatus (1), said closed structure having at least one entrance opening (9) and at least one exit opening (11) for the passage of the conveyor line (15, 17, 21) on which the bottles move, and a plurality of doors (13) for making maintenance operations easier.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the washing station (100) for washing the bottles (3) comprises a rotating circular carousel (111) that is equipped with rotating bases (109) receiving the bottles (3) to be washed, and is equipped at its centre with a brush (113) rotating in opposite direction to the rotating bases (109) and the carousel (111), which brush performs the washing of the external surfaces of the bottles (3) by means of water jets coming from nozzles arranged laterally of said carousel (111).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the bottles are transferred from a conveyor belt (15), being part of said conveyor line, to said carousel (111) by means of a first rotating circular distributor (105), and from said carousel (111) to the same conveyor belt (15) by means of a second rotating circular distributor (119), said distributors being equipped with semicircular sockets (103, 117).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein, inside the heating station, the conveyor line (17) is divided into a plurality of parallel conveyor belts (17a - 17d), each advancing in opposite direction with respect to the adjacent belts, wherein said conveyor belts (17a - 17d) may have different lengths, such as to ensure the maximum coverage of the portion of apparatus (1) intended for heating the bottles (3).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 7, wherein said conveyor belts (17a - 17d) are separated by partitions (219), comprising a fixed portion (219a) and a removable portion (219b) allowing modifying the partition thickness, the partitions defining a rectilinear path or channel of which the width only just exceeds the diameter of the bottles (3) moving on the conveyor belts (17a - 17d).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 8, wherein suitably shaped guides (203, 209, 213) perpendicular to said conveyor belts (17a - 17d) are provided at opposite ends of said belts, so as to allow transversally transferring the bottles (3) from one belt to another thanks to the push of the following bottles.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 9, wherein means for forcing the bottles (3) to pass from a conveyor belt (17a - 17d) to the subsequent belt are provided at opposite ends of said conveyor belts (17a - 17d), said means comprising a set of deflecting nozzles (215) arranged along pipes (217a) substantially perpendicular to the advancing direction of the conveyor belts (17a - 17d) and parallel with the side walls (5c, 5e) of the apparatus (1), said nozzles being inclined so as to send a pressurised fluid jet against the external surfaces of the bottles (3), thereby favouring the change of direction of the bottles (3).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in any of claims 7 to 10, wherein said conveyor belts (17a - 17d) are made of a plurality of mutually articulated meshes (19) of plastic material, provided with a plurality of holes.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the conveyor line (21) moving through the rinsing station (300) comprises one or more conveyor belts, and maore particularly a pair of parallel conveyor belts (21a, 21b) advancing at different speeds and inclined towards the centre line of the conveyor line, such that half the base of each bottle (3) rests on one conveyor belt and the other half base rests on the other belt.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 12, wherein the last conveyor belt (17c) in the heating station (200), with reference to the advancing direction of the bottles, and the conveyor belts (21a, 21b) forming said conveyor line (21) moving through the rinsing station (300) are adjacent and parallel to each other and move in opposite direction.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 13, wherein the passage from said last conveyor belt (17c) in the heating station (200) to said conveyor line (21) moving through the rinsing station (300) is performed by means of a motor-driven rotating disk (301), preferably made of a spongy material and co-operating with a semicircular concave wall (211a) provided in correspondence with a side wall (5e) of the apparatus (1), said wall having a diameter at least equal to the sum of the widths of said last conveyor belt (17c) in the heating station (200) and the conveyor belts (21a, 21b) forming said conveyor line (21).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 12, wherein said conveyor line (21) moving through the rinsing station (300) begins outside the apparatus (1) and enters the apparatus through a second entrance opening (25) provided in a side wall (5e) of said apparatus (1).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the conveyor line (21) moving through the drying station (400) comprises a pair of parallel conveyor belts (21a, 21b) advancing in the same direction and at different speeds and inclined towards the centre line of the conveyor line, wherein half the base of each bottle (3) rests on one conveyor belt and the other half base rests on the other belt.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claims 13 and 16, wherein the conveyor line (21) moving through the rinsing station (300) and the conveyor line (21) moving through the drying station (400) comprise the same conveyor belts (21a, 21b).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 17, wherein a screw conveyor (401) is located alongside the conveyor line (21) between the rinsing station (300) and the drying station (400) to uniformly space the bottles (3) moving on said conveyor line (21).
An apparatus (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein said heating station (200) is equipped with a plurality of nozzles (223, 251) connected to a hydraulic circuit and emitting water at higher temperature than that of the bottles (3) passing in said heating station (200), wherein said nozzles may be arranged along parallel pipes (217b) of said hydraulic circuit (217) located above said conveying device (17) at a level higher than the bottles (3), and/or along parallel pipes (217b) of said hydraulic circuit (217) located above said conveying device (17) at substantially the same level as the necks of the bottles (3), so that the fluid laterally impinges against the bottles (3), and/or along parallel pipes of said hydraulic circuit (217) located beneath said conveying device (17), so that the fluid impinges against the bottles from beneath.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 18, wherein water for bottle heating is heated by using heat developed by the compressor (403) generating hot air in the drying station.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the rinsing station (300) includes a piping circuit (303), in which clean water circulates and which feeds a set of nozzles (305) directed towards the centre line of said conveyor line (21) and arranged along at least two ducts (303a, 303c) inclined with respect to said conveyor line (21), downwards in the advancing direction of the bottles, starting from a level corresponding to the corks (caps) of said bottles (3) down to a level corresponding to the bottle bases.
An apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 20, wherein said circuit (303) includes a third duct (303b) located along the centre line of said conveyor line (21), at a level above the bottles (3) moving on said line, said duct comprising a set of downwards directed nozzles (305).