US2134955A

US2134955A - Container discharging apparatus

Info

Publication number: US2134955A
Application number: US148315A
Authority: US
Inventors: Ivan H Risser
Original assignee: U S BOTTLERS MACHINERY CO
Current assignee: U S BOTTLERS MACHINERY CO
Priority date: 1937-06-15
Filing date: 1937-06-15
Publication date: 1938-11-01
Anticipated expiration: 1955-11-01

Description

Nov. 1, 1938., H. msis'sn 7 2,134,955,

CONTAINER DIS CHARGING APPARATUS /l A/V H. R/SSFR Patented Nov. 1, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CONTAINER DISCHARGING APPARATUS Application June 15,1937, Serial No. 148,315

4 Claims.

This invention relates to container discharging apparatus, and more particularly pertains to such apparatus in connection with container cleaning machines.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide such discharging-apparatus of the simplest construction that will efliciently transfer containers, such as bottles, from a conveyor upon which they are conveyed through the machine in inverted position, to a conveyor for conveying the containers from the machine in upright position.

A further object of the invention is to provide such discharging apparatus that will be most efficient in connection with a cleaning machine in which the bottles are intermittently advanced in inverted position within bottle holders or bottleneck-receiving pockets, which pockets are arranged to position the bottles in reclining position at a given station to be discharged.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent by reference to the specification and the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation of a cleaning machine incorporating the discharging means of the invention, with parts broken away and other parts in section.

Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of the discharge end of the machine, as may be taken along a plane intersecting one of the pockets of the main conveyor thereof, and showing parts in changed position.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing certain parts of the discharging means, as seen in Fig. 2, in changed position.

Fig. 4 is a sectional end elevation of the machine, as may be taken substantially on the section line 44 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a detail plan section of the machine, as may be taken on the section line 55 of Fig. 4.

The machine illustrated, incorporating one embodiment of the invention, includes a frame comprising interconnected side-frame members I in the form of upright steel plates suitably secured on a base frame-work made up of a series of transverse structural pieces 2.

Disposed between the side-frame members i is an intermittently driven endless container conveyor 3 for intermittently advancing containers or bottles through the machine in inverted position to be cleaned and then drained before being removed from the machine. The conveyor is drum-shaped and comprises a series of circularly arranged equally spaced transverse cleats 4 mounted at their ends upon ring-like wheels 5, respectively, with the cleats being in the form of channel irons arranged with their flanges extending inward of the conveyor. The wheels 5 are rotatably mounted respectively on centrally open bearings 6 secured on the side-frame members I. The bearings are in the form of cylindrical sections upon which the hubs I of the Wheels are mounted for rotation, with said sections extending through openings in the sideframes and terminating in lateral flanges 8 secured on the outer faces of the side-frames.

Each cleat is provided with a longitudinal row of bottle holders or bottle-neck-receiving pockets H) for supporting the bottles H in inverted position upon the upper part of the conveyor to be washed and then drained. The pockets are in the form of tubular sections of resilient material, such as rubber, which extend through openings in the cleats toward the axis of the conveyor, and with each pocket having a flange l2 at its outer or receiving end secured to its cleat. Thus the pockets are capable of being slightly flexed onthe cleats from their outer ends by force of any vibratory motion imparted to the bottles carried thereby during intermittent movement of the conveyor, whereby such vibratory motion is absorbed by the pockets and whereby breakage of the bottles at their neck portions is materially prevented.

The conveyor is intermittently driven in counter-clockwise direction, as seen in Fig. l, and as the pockets are advanced into a horizontal position on the upwardly moving side of. the conveyor, the bottles are fed therein, as at the station A, by automatic means, not shown.

Upon being fed to the conveyor the bottles are advanced thereon in transverse rows into an inverted position over a cleaner head M which directs jets of water under pressure into the bottles while the conveyor is at rest. Upon being advanced two steps beyond the cleaner head l4, during which time the bottles are allowed to drain, the bottles are brought over an air-cleaner head l5 which directs jets of air into the bottles to dry same before they are removed from the conveyor. The bottles are then advanced from the cleaner head It on the downwardly moving side of the conveyor until they assume a reclining or horizontal position, as at the station B, where they are removed from the conveyor by the discharging means of the invention, later described.

For driving the conveyor, each wheel 5 thereof is provided with a ring-like gear "5 which meshes with a smaller gear ll secured on a shaft i8 located below the conveyor and being rotatably mounted in bearings in the side frames The shaft I8 is intermittently driven, so as to advance the conveyor step by step, by a constantly rotating power shaft I9 located therebelow and being rotatably mounted in bearings in the side frames The power shaft drives the shaft l8 through a common Geneva motion connection including a crank-disc secured on one end of the power shaft, and having a crank pin 2| which, during a quarter of each revolution of the power shaft, is caused to engage within one of four equally spaced radial slots 22 in the arms respectively of a star wheel 23 secured on the shaft 8, thus causing said shaft to be advanced a quarter of a turn. The star wheel 23 is positively held after each advance thereof, by the crank-disc having a segmental cam-dwell formation 24 for cooperative engagement successively within the peripheral recesses 25 between the arms of the star wheel. The gears l6 and I! are so proportioned that upon each quarter turn of the shaft It, the conveyor will be advanced an amount in accordance with the spacing of its transverse rows of bottle holders or pockets.

The discharging means of the invention will now be described. As the bottles are lowered on the conveyor into position at the station B, they are caused to rest upon the upper edges respectively of a row of inclined guides or chutes 3| mounted upon a transverse supporting bar 32 secured at its ends on the side-frame members. The upper edge portions 30 of the chutes are so spaced from the pockets at the station B, whereby the body portions of the bottles in the pockets will be supported on said edge portions at a point constituting the center of gravity of the bottles. Thus the bottles are substantially balanced on the edge portions of the chutes with the neck portions of the bottles being capable of floating in the pockets at the station B,-whereby removal of the bottles from the pockets will be facilitated, in that the neck portions of the bottles will not tend to jam in the pockets in the event the pockets do not register alike at the station.

As the bottles on the conveyor 3 approach the station B, the weight of the bottles will cause the pockets supporting same to become canted or tilted outwardly and downwardly from the conveyor until the bottles initially engage the top edges of the chutes. As the pockets continue downward to the station B, the bottles therein will be caused to rock on said edge portions of the chutes into a horizontal position at the station, whereby the pockets will be moved with the bottles into their normal position on the conveyor as they reach the said station. By the bottles being caused to rest on the top edge portions of the chutes at their centers of gravity when at the station B, practically the full weight of the bottles will be supported by the chutes, although the bottles may vary slightly in diameter. Thus the bottles will not tend to jam in the pockets before they are initially ejected therefrom, and ejection of the bottles from the pockets will be easily effected.

As the bottles are lowered onto the upper edge portions of the chutes 3|, they are brought into cooperative relation with a bottle discharging head 33 which ejects the bottles from the pockets at the station B, whereupon the bottles are caused to tilt over on the chutes and slide thereon into a tilted position upon an inclined shelf 34,

as at the station C, preparatory to being conveyed from the machine.

The discharging head comprises an elongated plate 35 extending between the side-frame members and normally positioned adjacent the outer ends of the pockets at the station B, with the plate having a row of bottle-neck-receiving recesses or notches 36 in its upper edge registering respectively with the pockets at the station and forming bottle shoulder-engaging abutments 31 therebetween. The plate 35 is mounted upon a cross-piece 38 whose ends are respectively secured on the upper ends of vertically disposed levers 39 which are fulcrumed intermediate their ends, as at 40, on the side-frame members respectively. The levers 39 are so arranged and operably connected with the power shaft whereby, as the conveyor is caused to dwell after each advance thereof, the discharging head is moved back and forth in the general direction of the axes of the bottles at the station B to cause the abutments 31 of the head to engage the shoulders of the bottles and eject same from the pockets.

The levers 39 are connected with the power shaft, by each lever having its lower end pivotally connected, through a link 4|, with one end of a U shaped lever 52 fulcrumed at its central por tion to one of the side frames, and having rollers on its arm portions engaging opposite sides of'a cam 43 securedon the power shaft, with said cam being formed to operate the discharging head in time relation with the conveyor.

The shelf 34 extends between the side-frame members on which are brackets 44 for supporting the ends of the shelf. The shelf has an outer horizontal portion 45 continuing into an inner inclined portion 46 upon which the bottles are supported at the station C, with the shelf being provided with a rubber pad 4'! to prevent breakage of the bottles as they fall thereon from the station B.

Upon being placed at the station C, the bottles are shifted from the shelf and onto an endless conveyor 48 upon which they are conveyed from the machine in upright position. The conveyor 48 comprises an endless sprocket chain with cleated links arranged to travel in an upper active stretch alongside and in the plane of the outer portion of the shelf by being supported on spaced guide-rails 49 mounted on brackets 50 of the side-frame members. The chain is supported at one end of its. stretches upon an idler sprocket 5| secured on a shaft 52 rotatably mounted in bearings in one of the brackets 53. Although not shown, it will be understood that the other end of the conveyor is suitably supported and so driven whereby the conveyor is caused to convey a row of bottles from the machine before another row is placed thereon.

For shifting a row of bottles from the shelf and onto the conveyor 48, an ejector head 53 is employed. The said head comprises a crosspiece 54 mounted upon the upper ends of two similar oscillating levers 55 secured on a rockshaft 53 which extends under the conveyor 48 and is rotatably mounted in hearings in the brackets 50. Mounted on the cross-piece 54 is a row of pusher members 51 which are in the form of chute-like sections arranged below and in alignment with the chutes 3|, respectively, for cooperating with the chutes in supporting the bottles on the shelf 34 in a tilted position. The levers 55 are so arranged and so operably connected with the power shaft that, as the dis charging head 33 is retracted, the ejector head is oscillated over the shelf, whereby it shifts the row of bottles from the shelf onto the conveyor 48.

For operating the ejector head, the rock-shaft 58 has a lever 58 pivotally connected, through a link 59, with the free end of an oscillating lever 6i] operated by a cam 6| on the power shaft, with the lever 6|] being fulcrumed on a bracket 62 on the base-frame-work and having a roller engaging the cam. The lever is maintained in engagement with the cam 6| .by means of two tension springs 63 connected respectively between the levers 55 and the base frame-work.

Although the power shaft I9 may be driven by any suitable driving means, said shaft is driven by an electric motor 65 through the intermediation of a speed-reducer 66 operably connected with the power shaft through suitable gearing B1.

The rubber bottle holders or pockets herein disclosed form generally the subject-matter of my Patent No. 2,105,795, of January 18, 1938.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. The combination with a conveyor arranged to convey a bottle with an extended neck in inverted position and then lower same to a given station in reclining position and having a pocket adapted to snugly receive the neck of the bottle, said pocket being resilient and arranged to be capable of tilting on the conveyor from a normal position by force of weight of a bottle therein as it approaches said station, of means for directing the bottle from the station including means for engagement with the bottle at a point adjacent the center of gravity thereof as it approaches the station and arranged whereby during final movement of the pocket to the station the bottle will be ,balanced on said engagement means and rock thereon into position at the station and the pocket will be moved with the bottle into its normal position on the conveyor.

2. The combination with a conveyor arranged to intermittently advance a succession of bottles in inverted position and then lower same to a given station in reclining position and having pockets adapted to snugly receive the necks of the bottles respectively, said pockets being resilient and arranged to be capable of tilting from a normal position on the conveyor by force of weight of the bottles therein as they approach said station, of means for transporting the bottles from the station including means for engagement with each bottle at a point adjacent the center of gravity thereof as it approaches the station and arranged whereby during final movement of each pocket to the station the bottle therein will be balanced on said engagement means and rock thereon into position at the station and the pocket will be moved with the bottle into its normal position on the conveyor.

3. The combination with a conveyor arranged to convey a bottle with an extended neck in inverted position and then lower same to a given station in horizontal position and having a pocket adapted to snugly receive the neck of the bottle, said pocket being resilient and arranged to be capable of tilting from a normal position on the conveyor by force of weight of the bottle therein as it approaches the station, of means for transporting the bottle from the station in-, cluding an inclined guide for guiding the bottle as same is transported and having an upper edge arranged for engagement with the bottle at a point adjacent the center of gravity thereof as it approaches the station and whereby during final movement of the pocket to the station the bottle will be balanced on said edge and rock thereon into horizontal position at the station and the pocket will be moved with the pocket into its normal position on the conveyor.

4. The combination with a conveyor arranged to intermittently advance a succession of bottles in inverted position and then lower same to a given station in reclining position and having pockets adapted to snugly receive the necks of the bottles, said pockets being resilient and arranged to be capable of tilting from a normal position on the conveyor by force of weight of the bottles therein as they approach the station, of means for transporting the bottles from the station including an inclined guide for guiding the bottles as they are transported and having an upper edge arranged for engagement with each bottle at a point adjacent the center of gravity thereof as it approaches the station and whereby during final movement ofeach pocket to the station the bottle therein will be balanced on said edge and rock thereon into position at the station and the pocket will be moved with the bottle into its normal position on the conveyor.

IVAN H. RISSER.