Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed... – For inverting successive items
Patent
1997-02-18
1999-09-28
Terrell, William E.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed...
For inverting successive items
198402, 198417, B65G 47244
Patent
active
059572647
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to apparatus for handling and/or cleansing tubular articles.
In the production of bottles for soft and other drinks, containers need to be produced of the right size and filled. Bottles of plastics materials are frequently used and are often supplied in a bottling plant in a "preform" state. Such preforms are shaped in the form of a relatively small test tube (closed at one end) with a threaded open upper end and a radially outwardly extending flange located just below the upper end. Each preform is gripped by its threaded end and flange, heated, and inflated in a mould until it expands to the size of the mould to provide, for example, a two or three litre container.
Any dust or debris left in the preform can have an adverse effect on the plastics during the heating and expansion phase. This often leads to weak or defective regions which, when subject to stress, are liable to rupture prematurely. To reduce this problem, the preforms are inverted and cleansed using a jet of ionised air. To invert the preforms usually requires a fairly complicated system.
German specification no 1914510 discloses a system where the containers are driven along an axially extending path and then entrained by a curved guide which guides the preforms through 180.degree. while they travel over a relatively long axial distance.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for inverting tubular articles.
According to the present invention there is provided apparatus for inverting tubular articles closed at their lower ends and open at their upper ends, the apparatus comprising an elongate tubular housing, an elongate rotary scroll accommodated within the housing and extending coaxially with said housing, the scroll having a helical fin in which the space between successive turns is sized to freely accommodate an intermediate portion of each tubular article fed to the housing, said housing having a lateral inlet opening at an upstream end thereof, the opening being sized and positioned to enable a succession of tubular articles, in an upright attitude, to be fed into the spaces between successive turns of the helical fin, axially extending stop means located inside the housing in the lower region thereof, the stop means being so positioned and shaped as to be engaged by the lower portion of each tubular member whereby limit displacement of said member within the housing about the axis of the housing and beyond the stop member and thereby define a path for said members to travel along one lateral side of the scroll, and engagement means within said housing at a predetermined upstream location in the said path, the engagement means being so profiled and positioned that when it is engaged by a tubular article driven along said path by the fin, it will substantially halt axial movement of the article and will cooperate with the fin to cause the article to be rotated about the axis of the scroll by said fin until it becomes inverted and further rotation is halted by engagement with said stop means, whereupon further rotation of the scroll, in cooperation with the stop means, will cause the tubular article to continue its axial travel along a path on the opposite lateral side of the scroll in its inverted state.
Apparatus for handling tubular articles will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a cut away plan view of the apparatus;
FIG. 2 is a cross-section taken on the line II--II of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a side view at the discharge end of the apparatus;
FIGS. 4A and 4B are, respectively, front and side elevations of a spring.
FIG. 5 is an end view of a modified apparatus from the upstream end;
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary section through an upstream end portion of the modified apparatus of FIG. 5;
FIG. 7 is an end view of the apparatus of FIG. 5 from the downstream end; and
FIG. 8 is a fragmentary section through a downstream end portion of the modified apparatus of FIG. 5.
The purpose of the apparatus to be de
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Coca-Cola & Schweppes Beverages Limited
Mackey Patrick
Terrell William E.
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