GB1456093A - Method and apparatus for sealing the caps of bottles - Google Patents

Abstract

1456093 Heat shrinkable capsules GUNZE KOBUNSHI KOGYO CO Ltd 11 Jan 1974 01340/74 Heading B8T In a method of cap-sealing bottles each bottle is fed in turn to a station B where a bonding agent is applied to the bottle neck and a top plate is placed on the bottle by a mechanism C, a station D where a length of flattened tubular cap-sealing material of heat-contracting synthetic resin is opened and placed around the bottle-neck, a heating furnace E wherein the cap-sealing material is thermally contracted, and a mechanism F where pressure and twisting are applied to the bottle neck to secure the capsealing material. In apparatus described for carrying out the method bottles are fed intermittently by a conveyer 4 and each is received by receiver 2 at the end of one of four arms 1 which are indexed through 90 degree arcs. The bottle is first carried over a path 5 to a turntable 6 and as it is rotated bonding agent is applied to its neck by a pad 8a. Simultaneously a top plate is fed from a stack in a holder 10 by a slide 8 and drops on to the top of the bottle. A photo-electric device 7 may be provided to detect a label on the bottle and control rotation of the turntable to align wording on the cap-sealing material with the label. The bottle then passes over path 5<SP>1</SP> on to a platform 12. Flattened lengths of tubular capsealing material are stacked in a holder 14 and are withdrawn therefrom and opened to cylindrical shape by a reciprocating suction device 15. After opening of a length the platform 12 is raised so that the bottle neck enters the length and the bottle is then moved over a raised path 16 and on to a conveyer 17. The bottle is carried by the conveyer 17 through the furnace E, where the length of tubular material is thermally contracted, and to the mechanism F which includes belts 24, 24<SP>1</SP> and 271 which rotate the bottle and press the tubular material firmly against the bottle neck. The tubular lengths of cap-sealing material may be opened up by a suction head 36, Fig. 6, which withdraws the leading length X from a stack in a holder 14, or the leading length X may be withdrawn from a stack in an inclined holder 42, Fig. 12 (E) by a suction head 53, and then dropped down a shoot before being opened by a pair of suction heads 58, 59.