GB1315767A - Apparatus for and a method of introducing material into a container - Google Patents

Abstract

1315767 Filling containers; feeding articles singly H STRUERS CHEMISKE LABORATORIUM 15 Oct 1971 [16 Oct 1970 29 March 1971] 48039/71 Headings B8C and B8S Apparatus for filling a container 23 having a lid comprises a hopper 4, a conveyer for conveying closed containers singly from the hopper into a filling station, means for opening the containers and means for introducing material into the open containers, the conveyer being reciprocable longitudinally under the hopper between a first position in which it supports the closed and empty container and a second position in which the lid is supported above the empty container at the filling station. As shown lidded dishes 23 supported on two plates 26 forming the bottom of the hopper 4 projecting into a sterile chamber 3, are fed one at a time on to the conveyer 11, by a pawl 27 on a platform forming part of a frame 22 carried by the conveyer and extending into the chamber 3. As the conveyer moves to the left in Fig. 2, the lid of the container passes above two hooks 30 and the dish slides off the plates 26 on to a platform 31, with the lid supported partly by the leading edge of the dish and partly by the hooks 30. When the conveyer has reached its left hand end position, Fig. 8, the lid has slid off the hooks 30 and is in position on the dish. As the conveyer returns to the right hand end position, the dish and lid are detained by the hooks 30, the platform 31 is withdrawn from under the dish which then drops between rails 32, Figs. 10 and 11, on to two lower rails 33, the lid being retained by the rails 32. When the conveyer is again moved to the left, the lid is pushed forward by projections 35 on the platform 31 and the dish is moved forward by a surface 36 on the frame 22 of the conveyer 11, to operate a switch 18 to stop the conveyer while the dish is filled through a tube 21, Fig. 1. Thereafter the dish is pushed further to the left, the lid slides off the rails 32 and drops on to the dish and the closed and filled dish is pushed out of the chamber 3 by a pawl 39 as the conveyer next moves to the left-hand position. An ultra-violet lamp extends through a hole in the chamber 3 to maintain the chamber sterile. In another arrangement, Figs. 12, 13 (not shown), lugs (34), Fig. 4 (not shown), on rails 32 are omitted and a movable bar (45) is provided with a hook (46) which engages the trailing end of the lid as it passes on to the rails (32) and dispenses with the hooks 30. In another arrangement, Fig. 14, 15 (not shown), one side wall of the chamber 3 is adjustable to dimensions of the dishes being processed.