US2332058A - Bottle handling machine - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 19, 1943. J. CATTONAl R ET AL BOTTLE HANDLING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fi led March 26, 1941 INVENTORS $07272 Chi-tundrand ewye 0 c ev'rA'rToRNEY Oct. 19, 1943. 4

J. CATTONAR E TAL BOTTLE HANDLING MACHINE Filed March 26, 1941 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 tVM/l" ATTORNEY ,J. CATTQNAR ET A1. BOTTLE HANDLING MACHINE iarch 26, 1941 Y 5 Sheets-Sheet :5

Filed lllllln INVENTORS- I BY g? 00L 1943- J. CATTONAR ET AL BOTTLE HANDLING MACHINE Filed March 26, 1 941 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 {40f ATTORNEY 06L 19 1943. J CATTQNAR AL 2,332,058 BOTTLE'HANDYLING MACHINE 5 SheetS -Sheet 5 Moi ATTORNEY l atented Got. 19,1943

s'rra s ear r pariah i (Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in packaging machines. More specifically. the present invention embodies improvements in applicants" Bottle packaging machine, Patent No. 2,277,688, dated March 31, 1942, which described the loading of bottles, jars and similar containers into boxes or cases or crates, having compartments to re ceive said bottles or similar containers.

The present invention provide an improved means of gripping the neck of the bottles, etc., previous to the loading operation by such a machine, offering thereby a departure in the art, considerable reduction of motion of its operative parts and a convenient adjustment for a wide range in height and diameter of bottles or containers to be handled.

The invention consists of a gripping device system for gripping the neckof bottles, or similar containers, to grip a single bottle, a row of bottles, two rows of bottles, three rows of bottles, etc. The invention will be fully described hereinafter and embodiments shown in the drawirurs,v which illustrate a convenientarrangement of the novel features entering into the invention, it being understood that it is permissible to make slight changes of details to suit manufacturing requirements without departing from the spirit of the present invention defined herein and the scope of the appended claims.

The accompanying drawings are an illustration of the embodiment in a preferred way and the relative position of the different features and the scope in relation to the features described,

in applicants Patent #2,.277,688.

Fig. 1 shows a front view of the improved machine with only two double gripping devices shown, although any number of these may be used, so as to suit the number of bottles in. the longer, or lengthwise rows of the case to be loaded;

2 shows a top view taken at about the level of line 2-2 of Fig. l, the position of the bottle slider being in the proper relation to the position of the gripper jaws of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation along a section taken on line 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 shows a partial side section taken at line d l of Fig. 2, with some or the parts omitted for cleamess;

Fig. 5 shows in detail the mechanism for and the gripping device in its locked position;

Fig. 6 shows a section of said mechanism and the gripping device taken on line 66 of Fig. 5 at its "release position;

Fig. 7 shows a detail section of the gripper jaws taken on line i of Fig. 6, and their relative position in respect to the key and the bottle just before looking the neck of the bottle;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged View of the gripper carrying yoke as seen from line 8-8 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 9 shows a top view of the ends of the gripper jaws taken from line tii of Fig. 5;

Fig. 10 is an enlarged view taken at line ill-id of Fig. 6 and shows the assembly of the grippers at that oint; and

Fig; 11 is a top view of the gripper guiding and operating parts, hereafter called interrupter carriage taken at diiferent levels, approximately on line iii-l l of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the machine is contained in a frame work composed of Walls 5 and 2 and cross member 3 aud t. Two large brackets of convenient shape support most of the mechanism on and about the bottle level, being indicated on the left-hand frame 5 by 5, and on the right-hand frame 2 by A seen in Fig. 4,

cross member connects 5 and 6 and serves also as a guide into which a suitable projection to of a trap floor 8 is slidably mounted and covered withacover 9. j

As seen in Fig. 2, cam shaft it rotates in its bearing i l and i2 fastened in the wall frames i and 2, respectively, and carries a number of cams of which it atthe left and i l at the right of equal path impart the necessary motion to the gripper carriage, through rollers 55, followers i=5 and levers E? which rock on shaft it fast in frames i and 2. To counteract the weights or the gripper carriag parts and the full bottles being handled, a counterweight i9 is bolted to the rear ends of the levers ll.

As seen in Figs. 1, 3 and 11, the lovers ii are connected through links 26 to a cross member 2 i the two ends of which are guided by the flanged body of a rack 22 fast on frame hand rack 23 fast on frame 2. On one end of the cross member it, one pinion 2d runs on th pin 25 fast on bearings 26, which bearings are part of cross member 25 and engage rack 22, and diametrically opposite engage rack 2'1; at the other end of El, another pinion 24 simharly mounted engages rack 23 and diametrically opposite engages racl; 28. Guides 29 and 39 fastened on the cross member 2i together with covers Si the other end of the gripper carrier 36. As best shown in Fig. 1, cross member 2| through adjusting screw 31 connects with one end of the interrupter carrier 36 and through adjusting screw 39 connects with the other end of the interrupter carrier 33.

It will be seen from Figs. 1 and that the interrupter carrier 36 being directly connected with the pinion carrying cross member 2|, will travel up and down a distance equal to the motion imparted to 2| by cam l3 and I4, follower levers l1, etc. Again the gripping carrier 36 being directly connected to the free racks 21 and 28 will travel up and down at the same time and in the same direction as interrupter carrier 36, but at a speed equal to twice the speed of interrupter carrier 33. The distance between the gripper and interrupter carriers will decrease during their downward travel and correspondingly increase during their upward travel.-

The difference in speed of said two carriers is here utilized to operate the gripper jaws as follows:

Gripper carrier 36 (Fig. 1) is more or less a cast frame with a long slot in which -are slidably mounted blocks 40 which can be shifted by means of set screw 4| in slot 42pof cover 43 to match perpendicularly the distance between the center of adjacent bottles in the row or row being as'- sembled on trap floor 6 below. A threaded tube 44 is inserted into each block 40 and fastened rigidly to it by nuts 45. at the upper end while at its lower end also threaded is fastened frame 46 carrying blocks 41 into which are inserted and to which are fastened by means of nuts 49, tubes 43, in the same fashion as tubes 44 are fastened to blocks 43 of gripper carrier 36. Also in the same fashion as blocks 40, blocks 41 with tubes 48 can be shifted by means oi. set screw 56 in slot 5| of frames 46. It is here pointed out that with the blocks 40, the desired adjustment is obtained to match the distance between the center of the bottles in the row or rows, while with the blocks 41 the desired adjustment is obtained to match the distance between the centerof the rows of bottles being assembled to be loaded. To the lower ends of tubes 43 are fastened blocks 52 to which on pins 53 are hinged gripper iaws 54 (Figs. 5 and 7). Tension spring 61 of which each end is attached to one gripper jaw 54 urges continuously the two jaws to lock, but their locking and releasing operation depend entirely on the position on which roller 55, carried also by jaws 56, roll on the operative face of key 12.

So far a direct and rigid connection ha been shown to exist all the way from gripper carrier 36 down to gripper jaws 54 with springs 51 and rollers 55. a

As seen in Figs. -5, 6 and 11, inside of tube 44 slides a round bar 56 which rigidly connects with collar 59 around tube 44 by means of screw 66 at a point near its upper end, and at its lower end it connects much in the same fashion with threaded collar 6| by means of screw 62.

The interrupter carrier 36, similar in construction to gripper carrier 36, carries blocks 63 which also can be shifted by means of set screws 64 in slots 65 of cover 66 to match the block 40 above. Tube 44 is free to slid in blocks 63 of carrier 38, in collar 59 and also in threaded collar 6|. Screws 6! and 62 on bar 58 are free to run in the wall of tube 44 along slot 61 above block 63 and in slot '66 below threaded collar 6|, respectively.

As shown in Figs. 6, 8 and 11, between the shoulder of the threaded collar 6! and nut 69 there is a loosely locked yok III at each end of which is inserted a round bar 1| which slides in tube 43 and which at its lower end carries key 12 to operate the gripper jaws 54. It will be observed in Fig. 7, that key 12 presents to each roller55 to roll on, two vertically straight faces 12a and 120 and one sloped onein between The operation of the gripper jaws is as follows:

In their upward travel at the higher rate of speed, racks 21 and 28 (Fig. 1) will tak along the gripper carrier 36 with tubes 44. 48, bars 58, II, jaws 54, key 12, etc., to a point, near the end of their upward travel at "which the top of nut 69 will hit the bottom of block 63 in carrier 38 which travels at low speed. This will cause the rate of speed at which bars 58, H, screws 60 and 62, collars 6|, 59, keys 12, etc., travel (Fig. 8) to be retarded while jaws 54, tubes 48, 44 and all parts connected therewith continue at the same high rate of speed for the rest of the upward travel. Roller 55 at this time will have so run off face 12a down slope 12b to face 120 and by action of springs 51, the jaws 54 will close and lock the neck of bottle B (Fig. 7). At this time the upward travel of the gripping device will have ceased, trap floor 8 will shift and with it the bottle supporting strips 16 from under the bottles and the gripping devices with the bottles locked will start their downward travel toward case C on the case conveyor floor below.

In their downward travel again, all parts and bottles will travel at the high rate of speed with racks 21 and 26 until the bottom of collars 59 will hit the top of blocks 63 in carrier 38 which travels at low speed (Fig. 6) this will again retard the speed of bars 58, H, screws 60 and 62, collars 59 and lil and key 12 while tubes 44, 48, jaws 64 and all parts connected therewith will continue at high speed for the rest of the downward travel, roller 55, will run oil face 120, up slope 12b to face 120 (Fig. 7), laws will spread apart releasing bottle B into case C. Compression spring 13 in bars 'Il (Fig. 1) act as shock absorbers for bottles B. Indicators I4 and 15 point to marks on guides 29 and racks 21 and 23, and indicate the different heights at which carriers 36 and 38 should be set in order to grip and release at the proper time bottles of difierent heights.

It has been seen that the improvements here-' struction and advantages of the invention may be readily understood by those skilled in the art without further description, it being borne in mind that numerous changes may be made in the details disclosed without departing from the spirit of the invention as set out in the following claims.

What we claim is:

1. In a bottle packaging machine, a gripping device comprising a pair of vertically disposed jaws having their lower ends provided with bottle neck engaging flanges, a horizontally disposed link connecting the other ends of the jaws, means for raising and lowering the link at a predeter-' mined speed of movement, means pivoting each aseaoss jaw to each end of the link, a follower on each jaw disposed between the ends of the jaws, one projecting towards the other, a spring below said followers pulling the jaws towards each other, a vertically movable. cam disposed between the followers to open the free ends of the jaws against the action of the spring, means operatively connecting said cam with said raising and lowering means for movement of said jaws and cam in unison, and means interposed at a predetermined point in the path of movement of said cam to retard movement of said cam relative to said jaws whereby to effect movement of said cam relative to said followers.

2.,In a bottle packaging machine, the combination of a pair of pivoted jaws movable respectively to bottle engaging and bottle releasing positions, spring means normally maintaining said jaws in bottle engaging position, cam means disposed between said jaws, supporting means for said jaws and cam means and movablevertically to raised and lowered positions to correspondingly raise and lower said jaws and cam means at a predetermined speed, means movable simultaneously with said supporting means but at a slower'speed and arranged in the path of movement of said cam means to retard the speed of movement of the latter relative to said jaws at a predetermined point in the path of movement of the latter, and means cooperating with said cam means during movement of the latter at a speed less than that of said jaws to move saidjaws from bottle engaging position to bottle releasing position. against the action of said spring means during movement of said supporting means in one direction and to permit movement of said jaws from bottle releasing to bottle engaging position by said spring means during movement of said supporting means in the opposite direction.

3. In a bottle packaging machine, a gripping device comprising a pair of jaws having their lower ends provided with bottle neck engaging flanges, a link connecting the other end of the jaws, meansfor supporting the link, means pivoting each jaw to each end of the link, a follower on each jaw disposed between the ends of the jaws, one projecting towards the other, a spring below said followers pulling the jaws towards each other, a movable cam disposed between the followers to open the free ends of the jaws against the action of the spring, means for raising and lowering said jaws at a predetermined speed of movement, means operatively connecting said cam to said raising and lowering means for movement of said cam simultaneously with said jaws and in the same direction, and means operable to retard movement of said cam relative to said jaws at a predetermined point adjacent the raised andlowered positions of said jaws whereby to permit movement of the follower on each jaw relative to said cam.

4. In a bottle packaging machine, a gripping device having a pair of matched flanges in reverseeach of substantially semi-circular shape to conform to the curvature of the neckof the bottle at its shortest diameter below the cap engaging bulb, and when' closed against the neck only partially surrounding said neck and diametrically opposite to each other, cam means interposed between said flanges and adapted to move relative to the latterfor movement of said flanges to gripping and releasing positions, and means for moving said flangesand cam means simultaneously and in the same direction but at difierent speeds relative to one another whereby to effect movement of said cam means relative to said flange.

' 'JOHN CATTONAR.

GEORGE OLM.

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