GB573797A - An improved bottle-washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

573,797. Washing bottles. NEWBALL & MASON, Ltd., and DURHAM, E. M. Dec. 9, 1943, No. 20593. [Class 138 (i)] Bottles are washed by means of a conveyer in the form of a spider 15 with radial gaps 45 in which are mounted nozzles 18 fitted with brushes for cleaning the inside of the bottles as the exteriors are cleaned by passage through cleansing liquid in a tank 10 fitted with an overflow pipe 12. The bottles are fed by gravity from a hopper 40 fitted with a lid having an aperture shaped to admit the bottles in such manner that the bottles enter the radial gaps neck first and the bottles are guided by a guard plate so as to drop over. the nozzles 18 which carry the bottles through the tank with the aid of a guide 34 which limits the outward movement of the bottles. The bottles may engage a rubber strip 28, Fig. 5, which rotates them so as to clean the outside of the bottle against a segmental brush 27, and the insides of the bottles are cleaned by brushes on the nozzles 18 and by streams of water or water and steam supplied through passages 17 in the axle 16 of the spider by a pipe 20 leading from a mixing valve 23. A valve with a segmental slot 25 controls the period of supply of cleaning fluid to the nozzles 18. As the bottles leave the tank 10 they are rinsed by water supplied by a pipe 29, and the bottles are finally stripped from the spider 15 and delivered to conveyer band 37 by means of a stripping fork 35 which engages the necks of the bottles and holds them while the nozzles are withdrawn. A lip directs the cleaned bottles to a shoot 36 with flared walls which direct the bottles to the conveyer 37 which is arranged offset with respect to the plane of the spider. Two or more machines may be coupled together, and the parts 27, 28 are adjustable for dealing with bottles of different diameters. '