US2962060A

US2962060A - Packaging apparatus

Info

Publication number: US2962060A
Application number: US722531A
Authority: US
Inventors: Shepard L Harmon; Hohl John
Original assignee: Owens Illinois Glass Co
Current assignee: OI Glass Inc
Priority date: 1958-03-19
Filing date: 1958-03-19
Publication date: 1960-11-29
Anticipated expiration: 1977-11-29

Description

N v- 9, 1960 s. L. HARMON ET AL 2,962,060

PACKAGING APPARATUS Filed March 19, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet l Nov. 29, 1960 s. L. HARMON ET AL 2,962,060

PACKAGING APPARATUS v Filed March 19, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PACKAGING APPARATUS Shepard L. Harmon and John Hohl, Toledo, Ohio, assignors to Owens-lllinois Glass Company, a corporation of Ohio Filed Mar. 19, 1958, Ser. No. 722,531

12 Claims. (Cl. 141--7t}) The present invention relates to packaging apparatus and more especially is concerned with the provision of novel and etfective means for maintaining undisturbed and undiluted an inert gas that has been introduced into the headspace of filled containers, preparatory to their being delivered to and sealed by a closure cap applying apparatus.

In the packaging of certain commodities, it is not only highly desirable, but frequently absolutely essential that oxygen be excluded from the jars or like containers in order to insure against rapid spoilage of the product. To this end an inert gas may be introduced into and fill a jar prior to depositing therein the product to be packaged. Upon deposition of such product, a substantial part of the gas is displaced, leaving enough however to fill the usual headspace immediately above the product. Ordinarily movement of such jars to the capping machine causes turbulence of the ambient atmosphere and resultant replacement of some, if not all, of the gas in the headspace with oxygen. Such, as explained above, results in short shelf life and frequently complete spoilage of the product.

An object of our invention is the provision of effective means for overcoming the above indicated objection and insuring retention in undiluted condition, the inert gas previously introduced into the container and occupying the headspace.

A further object of our invention is the provision of an inert gas injector arrangement operable to produce a blanket of such gas over and about the neck portions of filled open jars or such containers and novel means for closely controlling the direction of movement of the introduced gas so that it fiows toward the center line of the path of travel of the jars and additionally in the direction of movement of the latter at the proper velocity.

It is also an object of our invention to provide a novel form of inert gas injector which will direct gas from opposite sides of a path of travel of filled open jars in such fashion as to create a gas blanket enveloping the top and neck portions of the jars and advancing with the latter whereby to prevent dilution or displacement of gas already occupying the jar headspace.

Other objects will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of a packaging apparatus incorporating our invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary vertical longitudinal sectional view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a transparent cover plate which comprises a part of our invention.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional plan view taken substantially along the plane of line 44 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially along the plane of line 55 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail sectional view of the gas injector element shown at the right-hand side of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 showing another specific form of the gas directing vanes or louvers.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken substantially along the plane of line 88 of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a view similar to Figs. 6 and 7 showing still another specific form of the vanes or louvers.

Our invention is shown positioned between a jar filling machine 10 which may be of conventional or any preferred form and a straight line gas confining tunnel 11 the discharge end of which terminates in proximity to closure cap applying mechanism (not shown). This gas confining tunnel 11 and associated elements (not shown) comprise the subject matter of our copending application for U.S. Letters Patent, Serial Number 722,532 filed March 19, 1958. The present invention is directly associated with a transfer star wheel 12 which is mounted upon and rotates about the axis of a vertical shaft 13, such star wheel comprising a pair of superposed disks 12*, provided with an annular series of uniformly spaced peripheral recesses 14 which remove jars 15 or the like filled containers from the turret 16 of said filling machine 10 to a conveyor 17 which is positioned beneath the aforementioned gas confining tunnel 11. During movement of the jars 15 under the influence of said star wheel 12, they are blanketed in the vicinity of their open neck portions with an inert gas such as CO or nitrogen which preferably moves with the jars and substantially at the same velocity for the purpose of preventing any appreciable degree of relative movement of the jars and ambient atmosphere as would cause excessive turbulence and result either in dilution of inert gas in the headspace of the jars or perhaps complete removal of such gas and replacement thereof with oxygen.

In one embodiment of our invention (Figs. 1 through 6), it comprises a pair of inert gas injection units, one

of each being positioned at and extending along one side of the arcuate path of travel of the jars 15. These units are formed to introduce inert gas into the area through which the mouth and neck portions of the jars move and such gas is maintained in this zone by means of a cover. Each of the gas injection units 18 is of arcuate form being coaxial with the star wheel supporting shaft 13 a longitudinal series of ports 23 formed in the aforemen tioned partition or dividing wall 21. Discharge ports 24 are formed in the inner wall 25 of each of the expansion chambers 20 for the purpose of delivering inert gas under suitable pressure to the jar neck accommodating space 26.

The'supply of inert gas is delivered by way of a supply pipe 27 and a header 28 which extends transverse to the length of the gas injection units. This header has its ends connected to the outer or high pressure chambers 19 through discharge openings 29 in the header and registering inlet openings 30 in said chambers 19; Prefe'r,

ably this header 28 is positioned at that end of the gas injector adjacent the straight line gas confining tunnel 11. The casting from which each gas injecting unit is formed is provided with a horizontal longitudinal flange 25 which projects into the jar neck accommodating space 26 from the exterior wall 25 of the expansion chamber 20. This flange is positioned just below the plurality of discharge ports 24 and together with the cover plate C (Figs. 3 and 6) closes the open spaces between aplu- Patented Nov. 29, 1 960 rality of vanes or louvers 31 which are arranged along the exterior wall of said expansion chamber 20 and correspond in number to that of the discharge ports 24. These vanes or louvers may be secured by screws 32 or the like fasteners to the expansion chamber walls and comprise flat generally rectangular plates which are disposed diagonally in relation to the path of travel of the jars 15. In that form of our invention shown in Figs. 1 through 6, each of these vanes 31 has a corner section cut away providing a recess 33 (Fig. 6) Which accommodates a portion of an elongated baflle bar 34. This bafiie bar is suitably secured to the upper outer margin of the flange 25 and is positioned directly across from the discharge ports 24 to thereby insure initial delivery of the gas into the extreme upper areas of the jar accommodating space 26 and thereby effect envelopment of the mouth and neck portions of the jars. The aforementioned cover plate C preferably is formed of some transparent material, such, for example, as Lucite and extends from the header 28 to a tie-bar 35 (Fig. l) which together interconnect the two gas injection units 18. Clamps C releasably secure the cover plate C in operative position. The cover plates 22 for the gas chambers 19and 20 are secured to the chamber casting by means of screws 36, certain of which also serve to rigidly mount the entire assembly upon a support 37. This perhaps is best shown in Fig. 5.

With a structure as just described, jars are advanced without interruption by means of the star wheel unit 12 and during their travel between the gas injection units 18 have their mouth and neck portions completely blanketed by an inert gas. This gas is introduced under suitable pressure into the jar neck accommodating space 26 and because of the diagonal positioning of the vanes or louvers 31 such injected gas will also move forwardly with and at approximately the same speed as the jar travel with the result that there is little, if any, relative movement between the jars and the surrounding atmosphere such as would produce turbulence and result in displacement or dilution of inert gas that has already been introduced into the jars. These filled, open jars after moving beyond the header 28 enter another gas chamber 11 which, as stated heretofore, has associated with it devices disclosed and claimed in a copending ap plication.

'In Figs. 7 and 8, we have disclosed a slight modification which essentially comprises omission of the bafile bars 34 shown in Fig. 6 and consequent formation of the vanes or louvers 31 so that they are effective throughout their entire height as means for determining the zone of delivery of the discharged gas. This obviously increases the vertical dimension of the zone of initial entry of the gas into the jar neck accommodating space 26 and in certain situations is quite desirable.

In Fig. 9, we have shown a still further modification in which a baffle bar 34 is positioned upon the flange 25 as in the first described form of our invention but the vanes or louvers 31 are shortened horizontally and terminate in the plane of the inner wall of said baflle bar.

Wherever oxygen is referred to in this application, it is to be understood that such is intended to also include free air which contains approximately twenty-one percent (21%) oxygen.

Other modifications may be resorted to within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In apparatus for providing a blanket of inert gas for enveloping the open upper end portions of a plurality of filled jars while the latter are traveling along a prescribed horizontal path between jar filling and closure capping devices, a conveyor for advancing jars along an elongated path, an elongated horizontal cover plate overlying a portion of the conveyor, a gas distributing chamher extending along each side margin of the plate, said chambers defining side margins of an elongated jar neck accommodating space overlying the conveyor, means for delivering inert gas to an end of each chamber, each said chamber having a vertical wall provided with a longitudinal series of discharge ports opening into said jar neck accommodating space and a plurality of vanes or louvers disposed vertically on edge and at an angle to direct discharged gas into and generally along the path of travel of the jars and in the direction of movement of the latter, the previously mentioned cover plate in part resting upon the upper ends of the vanes or louvers and closing the upper ends of open spaces between said louvers and a continuous horizontal flange extending along each chamber and closing the lower ends of said open spaces.

2. In apparatus for providing a blanket of inert gas for enveloping the open upper end portions of a plurality of filled jars while the latter are traveling along a prescribed horizontal path between jar filling and closure capping devices, a conveyor for advancing jars along an elongated horizontal path, an elongated horizontal cover plate overlying a portion of the path of travel of the jars, a pair of contiguous inner and outer gas distributing chambers at each side margin of said plate, a vertical longitudinal dividing wall between each pair of chambers formed with ports providing communication between said chambers, means for delivering inert gas to an open end of each outer chamber at relatively high pressure, each said inner chamber having a wall provided with a longitudinal series of discharge ports opening into an elongated jar neck accommodating space overlying the path of travel of the jars and defined marginally by the pair of inner chambers, a plurality of vanes or louvers disposed vertically and on edge and extending diagonally relative to the path of travel of the jars to direct discharged gas toward the center line of said path and generally in the direction of travel of the jars and means associated with the vanes to concentrate application of the gas to the upper areas of said jar neck accommodating space.

3. The apparatus defined in claim 2, the lastnamed means in part comprising a flange projecting horizontally inwardly from each said chamber immediately beneath the discharge ports in the latter and a baflle supported on each said flange directly opposite the series of discharge ports.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 3, the elongated horizontal cover plate cooperating with the aforementioned flange in closing the upper and lower ends of the open spaces between the vanes or louvers.

5. The apparatus defined in claim 2, the vanes or louvers being individual to the discharge ports and means securing the vanes to the gas chambers.

6. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, the means for delivering inert gas comprising a chamber-like header extending transversely of said path at one of the gas distributing chambers, said header and the outer chambers having ports establishing communication between them and means for supplying an inert gas under pressure to the header.

7. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, a star wheel operable to propel the jars along said horizontal path and both gas distributing chambers lying in a horizontal plane above and formed on arcs coaxial with the star wheel.

8. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, the cover platebeing formed of a transparent material and clamping means for releasably securing the plate in position overthe jars.

9. In apparatus for providing a blanket of inert gas for enveloping the open upper end portions of a plurality of filled jars while the latter are traveling along a prescribed horizontal path between jar filling and closure capping devices, a conveyor for advancing jars along said path, an elongated horizontal cover plate overlying a portion of the path of travel of the jars, a gas distributing chamber extending along each side margin of the plate.

means for delivering inert gas to an end of each chamber, each said chamber having a vertical wall provided with a longitudinal series of discharge ports opening into an elongated jar neck accommodating space overlying the path of travel of the jars and defined marginally by the pair of chambers and a plurality of vanes or louvers disposed vertically on edge and at an angle to direct discharged gas cinto and generally along the path of travel of the jars and in the direction of movement of the latter, a longitudinal horizontal flange extending inwardly from each chamber just below the discharge ports, the vanes or louvers extending vertically from the flange to the aforementioned cover plate.

10. Apparatus as defined in claim 9 and a bafile bar resting upon the flange near its free edge directly opposite the discharge ports.

11. Apparatus as defined in claim 9, each vane being a fiat generally rectangular plate formed with a cut-out corner to accommodate a portion of the bafile bar.

12. Apparatus as defined in claim 9, the vanes terminating short of the free edge of the flange and a bafile bar extending along the flange between said free edge and the vanes directly opposite the discharge ports.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,107,237 Davies Feb. 1, 1938 2,317,470 Marx Apr. 27, 1943 2,620,111 Hohl Dec. 2, 1952 2,620,112 Hohl Dec. 2, 1952 2,787,875 Johnson Apr. 9, 1957