US2842916A

US2842916A - Device for vacuum sealing containers

Info

Publication number: US2842916A
Application number: US485156A
Authority: US
Inventors: Federico A Parodi
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1955-01-31
Filing date: 1955-01-31
Publication date: 1958-07-15
Anticipated expiration: 1975-07-15

Description

July 15, 1958 F. A. PARODl DEVICE FOR VACUUM SEALING CONTAINERS Filed Jan. 51, 1955 INVENTOR 'FEDERICO A. PARODI BY M K ATTORNEY United States. Patent DEVICE FOR VACUUM SEALING CONTAINERS Federico A. Parodi, Montevideo, Uruguay Application January 31, 1955, Serial No. 485,156

3 Claims. (Cl. 53-88) The present invention relates to apparatus for vacuum sealing containers and more particularly to a novel sealing device in said apparatus, said device functioning to close containers through the combined action of vacuum and atmospheric pressure. The sealing device of the in vention is particularly fashioned and arranged as to be capable of carryingout the operation of closing containers of the type provided with a recession in the inside wall of the neck and which containers are closed by a cap that simply rests on the ledge formed by said recession, there being interposed a gasket capable of forming a hermetic closure through the action of the atmospheric pressure, once there has been created a vacuum in the interior of the container thus to be closed.

The operation involved in the closing of containers in the manner indicated above is understood to be of common knowledge; but, up to the present time, the devices employed in said operation are complicated ones .that are provided with cocks for opening and closing the vacuum line, said cocks being necessarilyoperated either by hand or by mechanical means with cams and levers which make for further complication of the machines employed to operate said devices.

The principal innovation furnished by the device herein submitted, besides its simplicity, consists in the factthat the container itself places the device in position to operate, while also putting into operation the vacuum line, thus assuring that said vacuum linemust remain closed when said container is not being acted upon, leaving no possibility of interference with action being simultaneously carried out by another similar device mounted on the same said vacuum line.

The foregoing will be made clearly under-standable by means of the following description, set forth in relation to the accompanying sketches in which:

Figure 1 shows an elevated view, partly in vertical section, of a device in accord with the present invention.

Figure 2 shows the same viewas that shown in Figure 1, but at the moment when said device has been carried to its operating position by a bottle-container ready to be closed by the action of a vacuum.

Figure 3 shows a partial exterior view of a machine provided with a platform on which rests the said bottle ready to be closed, when said platform has been elevated so as to press the mouth edge of said bottle against the under surface of the device of the present invention and which said device is mounted in vertical alignment with respect to the said platform.

In relation to Figure 1, it should be noted that the said device of the present invention forms an ensemble a which consists of a hollow cylinder 10, said cylinder being open at both ends and provided with a lateral exit or outlet 11 through which to establish the desired connection with a vacuum pump for creating a vacuum. Inside of the cylinder 10, which must be adequately supported and maintained in a vertical position, is fitted a partially hollow piston 12 whose upper part ends in a H 2,842,916 Patented July 15, 1958 head 13, said piston beingso fitted within the cylinder 10 as to assure an air-tight adjustment. To the head .13 is attached a stop-catch 14 which can run the length of a narrow slit 15 formed in the wall of the cylinder 10 and following a generatrix of said cylinder; the stop-catch 14 and the slit 15 are for the purpose of limiting the longitudinal stroke of the piston 12 within the cylinder 10 and also serve to keep the former from turning within 'the latter. Of particular importance is the fact that the

members

14 and 15 guide the piston 12 within the cylinder 10 so that the opening 16 in the piston 12 is in rotational alignment with the outlet 11 in the cylinder 10 when the piston 12 is at the upper end of its stroke.

In the wall of the piston 12 is a perforation or opening 16 made in such manner and position that, when the piston 12 is at the extreme height of its stroke, the perforation 16 coincides with the opening formed by the lateral exit 11 that connects to the said vacuum pump; and, when the piston 12 is at the bottom end of its stroke, the perforation 16 extends, at least partially, below the edge of the bottom end of the cylinder 10, thus permitting the passage of air into the interior of the hollow part of the piston 12.

The bottom end of the piston 12 is formed by an arinular flange 17. A rubber baand 18 is attached to' the under edge of the disk 17.

The device described above operates in the manner as shown in Figure 2 which presents a bottle b with a recession in the inside wall of its neck 19, thus leaving a protruding ledge 20 upon which rests a cap 21, there being interposed an elastic gasket v22 between the ledge 20 and the cap 21; it is to be taken for granted that the bottle b will have been filled with whatever substance is desired to be contained therein and vacuum-sealed, and that the cap 21 is of such size and form as to permit of its being loosely fitted within the neck 19 of the bottle b and .in; a position of easyrest 0n the gasket 22.

The bottle b, thus prepared, and having been placed in vertical alignment to said device and elevated vuntil its mouth-edge comes in contact with the elastic band 18, further elevation of the bottle b will suffice to .force the piston 12 to penetrate the interior of the cylinder 1011mm it reaches the limit of its stroke, at which point the perforation 16 formed in the wall of the piston 12 will coincide with the lateral exit 11 which is connected to the said vacuum pump; the vacuum will act to compress the elastic band 18 and an air-proof closure will thus be established.

The vacuum created in the hollow part of the interior of the piston 12 will cause a ditference in pressure between the chamber formed above the cap 21 and the .interior of the bottle .11; .and this difference .inpressurewill cause the cap 21 to rise, allowing the air within the bottle b to escape as it is withdrawn by the action of the said vacuum pump. Once having created the necessary vacuum, the lowering of the bottle -b will suffice to cause the piston 12 to be forced downward by its own weightand the simple force of gravity, to the point of blockingofr' the vacuum line; then, when the piston 12 reaches '7 the lower limit of its stroke, the perforation 16 will establish communication between the atmosphere and the interior of the hollow part of the piston 12, with the result that the atmospheric pressure will cause the cap 21 to be pressed downward against the gasket 22, thus assuring a hermetic closure; obviously, this action completed, the bottle b may be removed without difiiculty.

A device thus made and set up holds a number of ad vantages over those of similar kind and purposes that are already known. Principal among these advantages is the reduction to a minimum of the hindrance formed by useless space, since it is evident that, during any period of operation, the said vacuum pump functions continuously, thus maintaining constant action as far as the interior of the lateral exit 11 in the wall of the cylinder 10. It will also be evident that, to assure the difference in pressure necessary to cause the escape from the interior of the bottle b of the air existing therein, it is necessary to withdraw only the air contained in the hollow space of the piston 12 and the small chamber formed above the cap 21. Another advantage of the device herein described is that it has no need of cocks or jets, nor of the means by which to operate them, inasmuch as the bottle b, itself, operates to open the vacuum line.

Because it possesses the foregoing characteristics, the more fundamental ofvwhich are illustrated in Figure 3, this said device is highly adaptable to use as a part of automatic machines that operate to close, or cap, a large number of container units per minute. In said Figure 3, it is to be assumed that the device a is adequately supported by holder 23 attached to an arm 24 that forms part of a machine consisting of a large rotating disk, said rotating disk being provided with multiple platforms c placed peripherally; each of said platforms will be placed in vertical alignment to its corresponding device a whose exit tube will be coupled to a tube 25 connected through a central chamber to the said vacuum pump; the platforms c will be operated by cams capable of raising and lowering them, thus bringing each one of said platforms periodically nearer to and farther from its corresponding device a. No detailed description or illustration of such type of machine is offered here, since they are machines that are quite well known in' the industry; as to their general structure, it is that of the rotating bottling machines, known and used for many years, which are fed by carrier belts or bands and form a part of installations which, in turn, include machines for capping bottles and thus closing them.

When a machine provided with the arrangement shown in Figure 3 is put in operation, it is to be supposed that the bottle b will have already been run through machines that will have placed the gasket 22 and the cap 21 in their proper positions, and that, subsequently, said bottle will have been carried to its proper position on the platform crwhile the latter was at its lowest point in its periodic and regularly spaced up-and-down movement, thus having left the bottle b in alignment with the corresponding device a; then, as the machines, continue torotate, the corresponding cam will operate to raise the bottle b until the upper edge of its mouth, having come up against the gasket 18, pushes the piston 12 until the latter is brought into the position shown in Figure 2, at which pointpit causes the said vacuum line to function and carry out the operation of closing the bottle b; then, once the air has been withdrawn from the interior of said bottle, the plat- In any machine that operates with a vacuum, the entrance of air into any part of the closed space forming the vacuum line is a highly disrupting factor; such unwanted entrance of air may occur where the machine used is of the type in which the operation of opening said vacuum line involves the use of a cock operated with a cam; whereas, with the arrangement herein presented, such said disrupting factor cannot be produced, inasmuch as, if for any cause or reason whatever, the bottle b were to fail to enter into the machine, the elevation of the platform 0 cannot then force the piston 12 upward without the interposition of the bottle b, and it is only through the elevation of the piston 12 that the said vacuum line can be opened; and, by virtue of this fact, a vacuum pump with a force only slightly superior to that represented by the air space of each individual device a, as in its turn it enters into the operating system, will sufiice to assure that the whole ensemble of such devices included in a given installation will be sufficiently emptied of air as to produce the desired closing of all bottles involved, in each case through the action of the corresponding closing or sealing device.

I claim:

1. In apparatus for vacuum sealing containers, a sealing device comprising a member defining a cylindrical bore extending therethrough, said member being provided with a lateral outlet communicating with said bore, vacuum means connected to said lateral outlet, a piston slidably mounted within said bore in air-tight engagement therewith for longitudinal reciprocation therewithin, said piston having a closed upper end and a hollow lower end, an annular flange surrounding the lower hollow end of said piston, a resilient gasket secured to the lower face of said flange, said lower hollow end of said piston being formed with a lateral opening therein communicating between said hollow portion of said piston and the exterior of said piston, and means to guide said piston during its reciprocation within said bore so that said opening in said piston will be rotationally aligned with said outlet when said piston is at the upper end of its stroke, said opening being longitudinally spaced from said flange a distance at least as great as the distance between said outlet and the lower end of said cylindrically bored memher.

2. A sealing device as recited in claim 1 in which said means to guide said piston comprises a longitudinally extending slot in said cylindrically bored member and an outwardly extending projection secured to said piston.

3. A sealing device as recited in claim 2 in which said slot limits the upper and lower stroke of said piston within said bore.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS