GB753332A - Improvements in or relating to article transfer devices - Google Patents

Abstract

753,332. Conveyers. EXPRESS DAIRY CO. (LONDON), Ltd. Sept. 2, 1954 [Oct. 19, 1953], No. 28722/53. Class 78 (1). [Also in Group XVII] A device, particularly for crating or uncrating bottles, comprises one or more grabbing heads vertically reciprocable to grab and raise a number of bottles on one conveyer, the head being swung by a swashplate mechanism about a vertical axis to deposit the bottles on another conveyer. Pneumaticallyoperated machines having two heads 42, 42a are described, which heads may have bottlegripping mechanism as described in Specification 709,421. The heads are carried on supporting means rotatable about a fixed shaft 31 and are secured each to a cylinder 41, the piston of which is carried on a rod 43 attached to a piston in a cylinder 40 secured to the supporting means. The supporting means is rotated by one or other of rollers 35, 36 engaging a fixed swash-plate 37, the rollers being carried by piston rods operating in cylinders 38, 39. Vertical movement of the rollers also causes one or other of a pair of brake pads 136 to engage a fixed plate 137 to check the rotation of the supporting means. The grabbing means on the heads is operated by a piston and cylinder device 44. In a bottle crating machine, bottles advance along a conveyer 45 having guides 51 and are checked against a plate 51a. A head descends the stroke of the piston in the cylinder 41 and grabs the assembled bottles, the adjacent bottles being checked by the pressing inwardly of hinged flaps 52, 53 at the conveyer sides. The bottles are carried through 180 degrees and the head lowered the full length permitted by the cylinders 40, 41 to deposit the bottles in a crate 49. The crates are advanced on a conveyer 46 and the first filled crate 49a past the filling station is checked by a fixed stop 261, being released after the filling of the crate 49, by the upward pivoting of bell-cranks 62 (Fig. 4), rollers 63 pushing the edge of the crate 49a over the stop. In de-crating, the machine as above described is modified so that the bottles are removed from a crate on the conveyer 46, the crate sides being gripped during emptying, and swung over to the conveyer 45 for release slightly before the supporting means comes to rest. Both crating and de-crating embodiments are fully automatic, the movement of the heads operating valves initiating the rotary movements, and the gripping and stopping devices on the conveyers being operated by cams 138, 139, 141 on the supporting means opening valves delivering air to their cylinders.