GB1433056A - Container-orienting apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

1433056 Orientating articles PNEUMATIC SCALE CORP 13 July 1973 [10 Oct 1972 23 April 1973] 33579/73 Heading B8S Elongate plastic bottles 12 lying on their sides are delivered to an orientating apparatus with their open ends either leading or trailing and are oriented into an upright position with their open ends uppermost by passing the bottles along a rail 62 which supports the bottles at mid-length allowing the heavier closed bottoms of the bottles to gravitate and pivot the bottles about the rail 62 into the upright position. The bottles are delivered successively down a shoot 10 into a magazine 14 where they form a stack, successive lowermost bottles in the stack being deposited into spaced radially extending pockets 16 of a rotary disc 18 as the latter is rotated to pass the pockets below the magazine. Each bottle dropping into the pocket 16 is initially supported on a stationary support disposed adjacent the open bottom of the pocket, and with rotation of the disc 18 and hence pocket 16, the radially disposed bottle is moved along the stationary support on to the rail 62. Air jets 56 are provided to urge the stack of bottles in the magazine downwardly to assist transfer of the lowermost bottle. The bottles supported only on the rail 62, gravitate into an upright position either radially inwardly or outwardly of the rail 62 depending on their positions in the pockets, into radially inner or outer pathways 22, 20 formed on a stationary base 44 below the disc 18, the two pathways merging into one for directing a single line of bottles on to discharge conveyers 26. The pathways 20, 22 progressively narrow in the direction of bottle travel to guide the bottles from inclined to fully upright positions. Rocking of the bottles about the rail 62 is assisted firstly by bottle engaging fingers 27 and then by air jets 64, 66 directed from above the bottles. The apparatus is automatically controlled by two photo-electric detecting mechanisms, one being located adjacent a feeding mechanism for the apparatus and the other 47, 49 being located adjacent the feed shoot, the disc 18 being maintained in operation provided bottles are detected by the mechanism 47, 49 and the feeding mechanism being stopped if the bottles are detected backing up as far as the mechanism. In the modified apparatus of Figs. 11, 12, 13 (not shown) the stack of bottles in the magazine are urged downwardly by a spring loaded floatingly mounted driven rubber covered wheel. In the embodiment of Figs. 14 to 18 (not shown) the bottles are transferred from a horizontal delivery shoot by air pressure, into pockets in a drum rotatable about an horizontal axis, whereafter the pockets rotate into alignment with the bottle receiving pockets on the orienting disc. In a further embodiment of Figs. 19 to 22 (not shown) the bottles are blown singly into a receiver from which each bottle is pushed downwardly into a pocket in the orienting disc by an air operated pusher foot operated in sequence with the disc movement.