GB744299A - Means for treating the interior of casks or containers on a travelling conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

744,299. Endless conveyers. MORGAN, C.F. July 17, 1953 [July 21, 1952], No. 18323/52. Class 78 (1). [Also in Group XVII] Apparatus for treating the interior of casks and like containers by injecting a gas or fluid into the bung hole for drying, cooling, washing or sterilizing the containers comprises an endless conveyer having cradles spaced apart longitudinally along it to receive the containers, means for feeding the containers in succession to the cradles, a box situated under the conveyer and having a slot extending along its upper surface, an endless belt in said box having holes spaced along it which register with the slot and with the bung holes of the containers on the cradles, said belt otherwise forming a closure for the slot, means for driving the belt and conveyer in unison, and means for supplying gas or fluid under pressure to said box. As shown, casks to be dried and cooled after being washed are fed by a reciprocating carriage 39 on to cradles formed by aligned parts 11 on endless chains 13, 14, these parts 11 sliding on framework parts 24, 25 so as to relieve the chains of the weight of the casks. Air under pressure is supplied to a box in the framework 10 constituted by end closures, side walls 27, a bottom 28, and a top 29 formed with a slot 30. This slot is closed by rubber pads 34 mounted on the links 31 of an endless chain 31a, these links being provided with skid plates 32 running on guides 33. Each pad located beneath a cradle is formed with a hole 35, and the bung hole 36 of the cask on the cradle is arranged over the hole so that air may be admitted into the cask from whence it passes out through the top hole 37. This chain 31a is driven by a sprocket 38 on a shaft 23 driven from the conveyer driving shaft 17. The casks are placed on rollers 40, 44 on the carriage and rolled on these so as to bring the bung hole to the bottom. The carriage is moved along the tracks 46, 47, 49 between a receiving station as shown in Fig. 1 to a delivery station adjacent the end of the conveyer by an arm 50 on a shaft 51 carrying the adjacent terminal sprockets supporting the chains 13, 14. This arm engages a roller 52 on the carriage frame member 43 so as to move the carriage to the downwardly sloping part of the tracks down which it falls and deposits the cask on a cradle. The carriage is returned back along its tracks by the arm 50 which, after it has moved clear of the roller 52, engages the arm 57 of a bell crank lever 56 and through links 55, 54 actuates a link 53 connected to the carriage.