GB757258A - Improvements in or relating to bottle washing machines - Google Patents

Abstract

757,258. Bottle washing machines. SEITZ-WERKE GES. May 21. 1954 [May 23, 1953], No. 14953/54 Class 138(1) A bottle washing machine, Fig. 1, includes a soaking tank 11 and a series of spray tubes 25 insertable into bottles 13, each bottle being disposed in an individual compartment of a bottle basket 12 intermittently conveyed along a predetermined path to different treatment zones, in which each basket 12 has two idling rollers 19, 20, and is raisable by a lifting wheel 15 co-operating with the rollers 19, 20 from the tank 11 towards a guide shoe 18 on a reversing wheel 16 and co-operable with the rollers 19, 20 for the guidance of the basket along a track 22, 22a, 24, means being provided at 22a for emptying each bottle under gravity and means being provided on the conveying path outside the track to insert into and remove from each bottle a spray tube 25, a terminal rail T being provided for guiding each basket 12 towards a disposal point. Each shoe member 18, of which there are four, has an end flange 17 and recess 21 for engagement, respectively, with the rollers 19, 20. After bottles have been emptied at the position, A, the basket 12 is moved by the wheel 16 to the position B, owing to the engagement of the roller 20 with the recess 21 and engagement of the roller 19 between the extension 24 of the rail 22 and a guide 23 fixed to the wheel 16. Subsequent movements of the wheel 16 transfer the basket from the position B to the rail T. At position B the bottles are in readiness for treatment by the spray tubes 25. The tubes 25 are mounted in a tube 26 resiliently carried by a spring 47 in a bearing 31 slidable on a fixed guide 32. Also slidable on the guide 32 is a bearing 34 carrying cups 35 for centering cupped end members 14 of the baskets 12 with the tubes 25 which latter can pass through openings 37 in the cups 35. The member 34 is also connected to a tension spring 36 and has a rod 33 fixed thereto and slidable in a part 42 of the member 21. The part 42, when the spray tube device is inoperative, engages a stop 43 on the end of the rod 33. The member 31 is raisable along the guide 32 by a lifting mechanism comprising a connecting rod 30, Fig. 2, carried by a gear 29 operable by a motor 27. At the appropriate time a crank pin 38 on the main drive shaft 39 of the machine actuates a switch 41 to energize the motor 27. The member 31 is thus raised and the member 34 follows under the action of the spring 36 until the cups 35 centre the basket cups 14. After the tubes 25 have been fully inserted into the bottles they are withdrawn as the motor 27 continues to rotate. the member 31 being lowered until the part 42 engages the stop 43 and lowers the member 34. When the device returns to the position shown in Fig. 1, a cam 44, Fig. 2, on the gear 29 engages a lever 45 to actuate a switch 46 and de-energize the motor 27. In the event of any of the tubes 25 encountering resistance during their upward movement, e.g. a broken bottle, the tube 26 is depressed against the spring 47 and a rod 48 on the tube 26 actuates a switch 49, whereby the main driving motor for the machine and the motor 27 are switched off. Alternatively the switch 49 may only reverse the poles of the motor 27 so that the lifting mechanism for the tubes 25 returns to the retracted position where it switches itself off.