GB839621A - A new or improved apparatus for agitating the contents of bottles or other containers - Google Patents

Abstract

839,621. Batch mixing machines. LISSIMORE, J. P. May 7, 1956 [Feb. 8, 1955], No. 3665/55. Class 86 [Also in Group XXX] Apparatus for agitating the contents of containers 15 comprises a plurality of holders 46 for the containers arranged to progress along an endless path through loading and delivery stations 16, 17, the holders being arranged to rotate about transverse axes as they pass from the loading to the delivery station. The holders 46 are pivotally connected to a conveyer chain 18 which passes round an upper sprocket 33, driven from an electric motor 40, and a lower sprocket 34. Each holder 46 is provided with a star wheel 78 having arms 79 which co-operate with studs 80 on the machine frame for effecting two or three revolutions of the holder during the time in which it conveys the container. The bottles 15 are delivered from a conveyer 14 through a loading aperture 16 by the co-operation of fixed bars 48 with a bottle engaging member 54, the latter being attached to a bell-crank lever 50, pivoted at 51, and urged across the path of the conveyer 14 by a spring 57. Movement of the bottle engaging member 54 is timed to occur in synchronization with the arrival of one of the holders 46 in registration with the loading aperture 16 by means of a cam 60 fixed on a shaft 61 which is driven by chain gearing 62, 64 from a shaft 36 to which the lower sprock 34 is attached. The cam 60 is engaged by a follower 65 carried by a rocker 66 connecter by a rod 67 to the arm 58 of the bell-crank lever 50 so that the loader member is retained positively in its inoperative position except that when the follower 65 is engaged by a flat 70 on the cam 60. A synchronizing means responsive to the arrival of a bottle 15 at the loading station comprises a feeler member 74 pivoted at 71 so that when it is engaged by a bottle 15 it swings in an anti-clockwise direction causing a latch arm carrying a stop member 73 also to move in an anti-clockwise direction out of the path of the end 52 of the bellcrank lever 50. At the delivery station an expulsion member 83 having a guide face 84 is disposed in the path of the holders and this member 83 engages the bottles and displaces them through the delivery aperture 17 on to the conveyer 14.