US3099120A

US3099120A - Apparatus for the removal one by one of bottle-caps from a stack and positioning them

Info

Publication number: US3099120A
Application number: US99635A
Authority: US
Inventors: Bruun Otto Johannes
Original assignee: Andersen & Brunn S Fabrikker A
Current assignee: Andersen & Brunn S Fabrikker A; Andersen & Brunn's Fabrikker AS
Priority date: 1961-03-30
Filing date: 1961-03-30
Publication date: 1963-07-30
Anticipated expiration: 1980-07-30

Description

o. J. BRUUN 3,099,120 s FOR THE REMOVAL ONE BY ONE OF BOTTLECAPS FROM A STACK AND POSITIONING THEM July 30, 1963 APPARATU Filed March so, 1961 3 SheetsSheet 1 IN VE N T03 0 rm Jamar/N55 Beau/v July 30, 1963 o. RUUN 3,099,120

APPARATUS FOR THE REM ONE BY O OF BOTTLE-CAPS FROM ACK ITION A ST POS THEM Filed March 50, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 July 30, 1963 o. J. BRUUN 3,099,129

APPARATUS FOR THE REMOVAL ONE BY ONE OF BOTTLE-CAPS FROM A STACK AND POSITIONING THEM Filed March 50, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOE firm fifimvmss Beau United States Patent mark Filed Mar. 30, 1961, Ser. No. 99,635 2 Claims. (Cl. 53-313) The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for the removal one by one of cup-shaped, conical caps of paper or thin metal foil with or without papercovering nested in a stack and for the positioning of the removed caps one by one over bottlenecks or in a machine for additional processing.

It is a known art to separate conical caps one by one from a stack of caps by a blast of compressed air between the first and second caps of the stack, either so that the open ends of the cup-shaped caps face forward or so that their closed ends are facing forward.

In the former case the cap will by the air-blast be carried in the same position with its open end downwards through a funnel directly over the neck of the passing bottle and down over the bottleneck. In the latter case, in which the cap is blown from the stack with its closed end forwards, it will be necessary to turn the cap about 180 in order that the open end may face downwards towards the bottleneck, so that the cap may fall down over it. For the performance of this turning of the cap it is known to use a revolving mechanism.

The known apparatus suffer from the disadvantage that they do not operate reliably at the high speeds today demanded from automatic capping machines, and this disadvantage is due to three special causes. In the first place, the blowing of the cap down over the bottleneck causes erratic eddies to be formed and makes the control of the cap uncertain. In the second place, the revolving mechanism which has to catch the blown out cap, to hold it during a turn of 180 and then to deliver it with its open end downwards over the bottleneck, is narrowly limited with regard to speed and reliability of delivery. In the third place, even the best bottles vary considerably in diameter, height and shape, so that it will frequently happen that a bottleneck will be offset in relation to the cap whereafter the capping will fail.

It is the object of the invention to provide an apparatus for the fixing of bottle-caps of the kind stated at very great speed and with unfailing accuracy.

The principle of the invention is as follows:

A stack of nested caps is placed in a channel having the closed ends of the caps pointing towards the take-out mechanism, and in known manner the first cap is removed by a blast of compressed air blown into the space between it and the second cap. The channel holding the stack of caps may be inclined so that the stack will be carried forward by gravity as the caps are being removed, or the channel may be horizontal in which case the stack of caps will be carried forward by means of a drive mechanism, for instance an endless band at the bottom of the channel carrying the stack forward by friction against the sides of the stack.

To make it possible to blow compressed air in between the first two caps when they have smooth sidewalls resting snugly against each other without air space between them, the invention provides for the use of a number of thrust shoes circularly enclosing the stack of caps immediately behind the edge of the open end of the first cap. These thrust-shoes are operated by compressed-air pistons and their motion is synchronized with the blowing-off of the first cap in the stack, so that immediately before the air-blast is released the thrust-shoes will be pressed in 3,099,12h Patented July 30, 1963 "ice against the projecting edge of the second cap with sufiicient force to dent the edge of that cap slightly inwards. Thereby a space will be formed between the side-walls of the first and second caps permitting the air-blast to enter and blow off the first cap. As the caps are made of paper, paper-coated metal foil or thin metal foil of some resilience, the small dents caused by the thrust-shoes will be straightened out automatically when the pressure ceases and the cap becomes the first cap in the stack.

According to the invention the stack of caps rests against a rotating disc or shutter so formed that when it is turning on its axis it will alternately stop the stack and give h'ee passage for the blown-out cap. The shutter is synchronized 'with the air-blast, so that when the blast sets in there will be free passage for the first cap, whereupon the shutter will again stop the stack. This operation continues at a rapid rate.

The blown-off first cap passes through the opening in the shutter and then through a short funnel into a guide channel so shaped that the caps herein will lie on top of each other side by side. The guide channel is vertical so that the caps will gravitate towards the stop at the bottom of the channel. The guide channel is curved according to the conicity of the caps so that while lying in the guide channel the caps will rest against one another along the whole length of their sidewalls. The channel is of such length that the cap reaching the bottom stop during the passage has been turned in relation to its initial angle and now assumes a position in which it may be struck on the inside by a passing bottleneck.

In this manner moving parts for the turning of the cap are eliminated, and as it is the bottleneck itself which impinges against the cap and causes it to be carried down over the bottleneck, variations in diameter and shape of the bottles are of no importance.

The bottom stop for the caps in the guide channel is of such shape that when a passing bottle impinges against the inside of the lowermost cap and tries to pull it along, the cap will be released from the guide channel, because resilient holders will yield to the pull of the bottleneck and release the cap which by its own weight will then drop down over the bottleneck. At the same time the next cap will drop into position to be struck by the next bottleneck, and so on for each bottle carried forward. One of the advantages according to the invention is that no cap- 'VVfl'l be released unless a bottle has been carried forward to receive and relieve it.

-It is also a great advantage that a number of caps always will be present in the guide channel, so that capping may continue without interruption even if the blowing off of caps should be suspended for a short period, for instance, when :a new stack is to be fed into the apparatus.

By operating the blow-off at a slightly quicker rate than the release of caps from the guide channel, the latter will always be kept filled so that an adjustment of the supply of caps to the guide channel may be controlled by a photo cell or an electrically operated feeler.

An embodiment of an apparatus according tothe invention is shown in the drawing which, however, comprises only such parts of the apparatus as are of importance for the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows the upper part of the apparatus in side elevation and vertical section,

FIG. 2 a section through line IIII in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 the same viewed at a downward angle from the left side in FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 the lowermost part of the apparatus seen from the same side as in FIG. 1,

FIG. 5 a section through line V-V in FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 the lowermost part of the apparatus in side elevation and with the parts in a different position, and

FIG. 7 a section through line VII-VII in FIG. 6.

The appanatus consists in the main of a stack channel shown in FIG. 1 in combination with a compressed-air mechanism and of a guide channel with bottom stop and release mechanism, especially shown in FIG. 4. The apparatus is mounted on a frame, of which the drawings in FIGS. 1 and 3 show only the part .1 carrying the cornpressed-air mechanism, and FIG. 4 the part 2 carrying the release mechanism and the guide channel.

The frame part 1 carries a cylindrical ring 3 in which is mounted a number of compressed-air cylinders 12 containing spring-loaded pistons 13 connected with the thrust-shoes 14 entering the blower ring. Cylinders 12 are interconnected by connecting pipes 16 and are through passages in the flange of the cylindrical ring connected with a pipe :15 which is joined to a compressed-air source through .a valve, not shown in the-drawing, controlling the flow of air.

The cylinder ring 3 carries a blower-ring holder 7 on which is mounted a stack channel 4 or" semi-cylindrical shape and arranged to support and guide a stack 5 of caps 6 nested together and placed therein. These caps are made of paper or thin metal foil and, as shown in FIG. 1, have a skirt and a closed .top which in the position of the stack 5 shown inFIG. 1 is facing downwards. 'Ihe blower-ring holder 7 carries also a blower-ring 8 with blast holes 9, which through air passages 10 and a passage 11 in the blower-ring holder 7 are connected with a compressed-air source through a valve controlling the air-flow but not shown in the drawing. The blast holes 9 debouch in known manner on the inside of the blower-ring '8 in such -a direction that the air-jets from the blast holes will be inclined inwards in relation to the axis of the blowerllllg.

On the frame in Way of the blower-ring a shutter 17 is mounted in manner not shown in the drawing, which shutter is in the form of a plane disc turnably mounted on an axle 18 resting in hearings on the frame, in manner not shown in the drawing, and by transmission gears 19 conected with a drive-shaft 20, so that the shutter may be rotated.

In the embodiment shown the shutter 17 is provided with three openings 21 situated between three webs so dimensioned that, as shown in FIG. 3, the openings and the webs during the rotation of the shutter will alternate in front of the mouth of the blower-ring 8. When a web is in front of the blower-ring it will form a bottom for the stack channel 4 and ring 8'. A stack of caps in the channel will therefore rest with the top of the lowermost cap against the shutter. When an opening 21 in the shutter is in front of the blower-ring, a cap from the stack may be blown through the shutter. The dimensions are so selected that the skirt of a cap standing on a web of the shutter in this manner will protrude to the blast holes 9 just below the thrust-shoes 14. When these shoes are pressed inwards they will therefore not touch the first cap but press against the next caps and thereby hold the whole stack in place while the first cap is being blown off.

The drive for the shutter 17 and the valves for the compressed-air supply to blast-holes 9 and cylinders 12 are connected by a transmission gear so that-compressed air will fiow to blast-holes 9 and cylinders 12 for the advance of the thrust-shoes 14, while at the same time an opening 21 in the shutter 17 will pass the mouth of the blower-ring and give free passage for the first cap when compressed air is blown through the blast-holes. At the same time the next caps will be depressed to some extent so that there will be space for the compressed air to penetrate between the inside of the first cap and the outside of the second cap.

The thrust-shoes are actuated by springs 24- which cause the jaws to be drawn back and release the stack when there is no air pressure in cylinders 12.

On the opposite side of shutter 17 a funnel 22 is mounted, serving to catch the cap blown ed the stack and carry it into the upper end of a curved guide channel 4 23 connected with the funnel. In this guide channel the caps blown off the stack will rest side by side.

The guide channel extends from the funnel down to a bottom stop and release mechanism for the release one by one of the caps in the channel to bottles 25 which standing on a conveyor one by one advance past the release mechanism.

The apparatus operrates in the manner that the stack of caps 5 is placed in the stack channel 4. The bottle 25 is carried past the release mechanism at the lower end and takes the caps blown off the stack one at a time. A stack of caps lying in the stack channel will with the top end of the first cap rest for a moment against a web on the revolving shutter 17. When an opening 21 in the shutter coincides with vthe blower-ring i), thrustshoes 14 will be pressed in against the second cap in the stack, while at the same time air will be blown through the blast holes 9 and in under the first cap which will thus be blown out through the funnel into the curved guide channel.

The cap blown into the guide channel will drop down and settle .on :top of the other caps in the channel and gradually sink with them while at the same time it will be turned so that close to the release mechanism its open end will be inclined downwards in direction towards the bottles advancing on the conveyor in the direction indicated by arrow '26, so that the neck of one of the bottles will enter the opening of the cap and slide in between jaws 2?. The space between the jaws is determined by the diameter of the cap and the bottleneck and may be adjusted by varying the space between stops 33 against which the rear ends 32 of the jaws impinge. Before the bottleneck reaches the cap it will impinge against catches 34 on jaws 29 and thereby swing the jaws outward against the pressure of springs 31. Thereby stops 30 will be carried so far out to the side that the cap which is now being struck by the bottleneck may, without encountering resistance, be carried on by the bottle and drop down over the bottleneck as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. The lower rail 27 of the guide channel must be located at such a level above the bottle conveyor that it can support the lowermost cap and at the same time allow the bottle to pass. Rail 28 must be so shaped that it can support the top of the cap when the cap moves out between jaws 29. For this purpose the lower end 35 of the top rail 28 is bent to horizontal position so that it may support the cap during the release as shown in FIG. 6.

The invention is not confined to the embodiment shown and specified, and particularly the release mechanism may be of a different design from that shown. In its construction the sole feature of importance is that the active stops are removed from stopping position by the catches connected with them being struck by the bottle before it impinges against the cap, so that the cap will practically be released when it is struck by the bottle.

The apparatus has been specified for use in connection with the capping of bottles 25, but instead the apparatus may be used in connection with other members to be supplied and acting in corresponding manner in transporting the caps one by one to additional processing machines, for instance for the printing of style or decorations on the tops or skirts of the caps.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for the automatic removal, one by one, of conical caps of paper, paper-coated metal foil or thin metal foil from a stack of caps piled together, by the method of blowing the lowermost cap from the stack, which is placed in such a way that the top ends of the caps in the stack are facing in the direction into which the caps are to be blown for being placed one by one over the necks of bottles passing the apparatus, comprising in combination: an inclined stack channel, a cylindrical blower ring having an opening co-axial with the stack channel and provided with blast holes along the inside narrowly surrounding a stack of caps lying in the stack channel and serving to blow the caps one by one from the stack of caps, a rotatably mounted, plane shutter on an axle parallel to the axis of the stack channel and the blower ring, Webs on the said shutter adapted to project below the opening in the blower ring and defining openings between the Webs to permit the caps to pass from the ring through the shutter, a funnel for catching the blown off caps, a curved guide channel placed in a vertical plane and connected at its top end to said funnel for guiding and turning the caps moving downwards by gravity to a position in which their top ends'are rearmost, and a release-mechanism placed at the lower end of the guide channel and consisting of spring loaded stops proiecting into the track of the caps in the guide channel and provided with catches projecting into the track of bottles carried past the release mechanism on a conveyor.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising jaws placed in the blower ring at such distance above the shutter that in their innermost position they will press against the outside of the second cap in the stack without touching the first cap.

Brinton Apr. 6, 1937 Drese Feb. 14, 1956

Claims

1. APPARATUS FOR THE AUTOMATIC REMOVAL, ONE BY ONE, OF CONICAL CAPS OF PAPER, PAPER-COATED METAL FOIL OR THIN METAL FOIL FROM A STACK OF CAPS PILED TOGETHER, BY THE METHOD OF BLOWING THE LOWERMOST CAP FROM THE STACK, WHICH IS PLACED IN SUCH A WAY THA THAT THE TOP ENDS OF THE CAPS IN THE STACK ARE FACING IN THEDIRECTION INTO WHICH THE CAPS ARE TO BE BLOWN FOR BEING PLACED ONE BY ONE OVER THE NECKS OF BOTTLES PASSING THE APPARATUS, COMPRISING IN COMBINATION: AN INCLINED STACK CHANNEL, A CYLINDRICAL BLOWER RING HAVING AN OPENING CO-AXIAL WITH THE STACK CHANNEL AND PROVIDED WITH BLAST HOLES ALONG THE INISDE NARROWLY SURROUNDING A STACK OF CAPS LYING IN THE STACK CHANNEL AND SERVING TO BLOW THE CAPS ONE BY ONE FROM THE STACK OF CAPS, A ROTATABLY MOUNTED, PLANE SHUTTER ON AN AXLE PARALLEL TO THE AXIS OF THE STACK CHANNEL AND THE BLOWER RING, WEBS ON THE SAID SHUTTER ADAPTED TO PROJECT BELOW THE OPENING IN THE BLOWER RING AND DEFINING OPENINGS BETWEEN THE WEBS TO PERMIT THE CAPS TO PASS FROM THE RING THROUGH THE SHUTTER, A FUNNEL FOR CATCHING THE BLOWN OFF CAPS, A CURVED GUIDE CHANNEL PLACED IN A VERTICAL PLANE AND CONNECTED AT ITS TOP END TO SAID FUNNEL FOR GUIDING AND TURNING THE CAPS MOVING DOWNWARDS BY GRAVITY TO A POSITION IN WHICH THEIR TOP ENDS ARE REARMOST AND A RELEASE-MECHANISM PLACED AT THE LOWER END OF THE GUIDE CHANNEL AND CONSISTING OF SPRING LOADED STOPS PROJECTING INTO THE TRACK OF THE CAPS IN THE GUIDE CHANNEL AND PROVIDED WITH CATCHES PROJECTING INTO THE TRACK OF BOTTLES CARRIED PAST THE RELEASE MECHANISM ON A CONVEYOR.