Package making – With means responsive to a sensed condition – Separate delivery of incomplete or defective package
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-14
2001-03-27
Kim, Eugene (Department: 3721)
Package making
With means responsive to a sensed condition
Separate delivery of incomplete or defective package
C053S281000, C053S561000, C209S597000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06205743
ABSTRACT:
DESCRIPTION
The invention relates to an automatic machine for manufacturing, checking, filling and capping plastic bottles. At present plastic bottles are manufactured in locations which are often different from the locations of use and, in any case, after manufacture, they are stored and only subsequently are they taken out of storage and supplied to the filling and capping machine. During the storage, transportation and storage-removal stage, many bottles are damaged and create problems during the subsequent stage of use. Storage, removal from storage and in particular transportation of the bottles are operations which increase significantly the costs of packaging the product which is introduced into the said bottles.
The machines of the known type which fill and cap plastic bottles are often very fast rotating machines which must be combined with units for supplying the bottles removed from the storage locations in loose form and units for checking the suitability of the bottles themselves, which must be interfaced with each other and with the filling machine, resulting in particular problems with regard to control of the automatic operation of the entire system, in particular during the start-up stages. In known systems, minor operating problems in a unit located upstream result in stoppage of the entire plant, thereby further increasing the packaging costs. In known plants, discarding of the defective products is performed downstream of the said plants, whereas in the connection zones between the various working units of the plant it is extremely difficult to provide the possibility of discarding defective bottles and allowing the downstream stations which have received properly formed or properly filled bottles to continue operating. The known art is therefore characterized by the use of plants which are very fast, but which are often inactive due to operating defects, and this also has a negative effect on the packaging costs.
The invention intends to overcome these and other problems and drawbacks of the known art by means of a machine with relatively small dimensions which must be periodically supplied only with the plastic material necessary for the manufacture of the bottles, the liquid to be packaged and the caps and which is able to manufacture automatically the plastic bottles and, if necessary, label them where required, remove from them the sprues resulting from the moulding cycle, calibrate their necks, check their suitability for use, fill them, checking that filling is properly performed, and finally cap them, checking for the correctness of the closure. The machine according to the invention will therefore supply full and capped bottles and will also dispose of the processing waste and the defective bottles which will be ground up and recycled. The machine according to the invention is of the linear type, with an intermittent working cycle, with the various stations located one after another and in a condition ensuring maximum accessibility for adapting them to variations in the size of the bottles. The extruder is preferably positioned perpendicularly at the front end of the machine, where the multiple-form mould and counter-mould group operates and means are provided for ensuring that, when this group closes around the parisons and the latter are cut, the extruder which remains active for the manufacture of new parisons, is raised, while the mould and counter-mould group moves one step and is brought into alignment with the blowing station which is lowered and inserts its nozzles into the group in question, for the formation of the containers which remain trapped with their mouths in the nozzles of this station. Then the mould/counter-mould group opens and is displaced so as to return into the station for gripping new parison sections, while the extruder returns in synchronism into the lowered position. The carriage which carries the mould and counter-mould group is connected to a following carriage which carries three successive grippers with a self-centring movement, which cyclically transfer the groups of thermoformed bottles from the blowing station to the following calibrating and sprue-removal station and then from this station to the following station for checking sealing and the compression strength of the said bottles and then from this station to the following filling station. In synchronism, a fourth self-centring gripper, which is mounted on its own carriage, removes the bottles from the filling station and transfers them into the capping station from where the full and sealed bottles will then be conveyed away by means of a conveyor.
All the operating stations of the machine, including the mould and counter-mould group, are mounted in cantilever fashion on a support shoulder opposite the side of the machine where the machine operator normally stands, so as to allow maximum accessibility during the inspection and size-changing operations. A conveyor belt is provided underneath the various stations, from the blowing station to the end capping station, and collects the sprue and the production waste and discharges it at the same end of the machine from where the full and capped bottles emerge. At two intermediate points along the machine, respective jib cranes are provided for rapid replacement of the components of the machine itself during the maintenance or size-changing operations. The whole machine is preferably enclosed in a housing and may be designed to operate in a controlled-atmosphere environment, useful for the packaging of products of any type, from aggressive and volatile products to food products or cosmetic or pharmaceutical products. A single electronic control unit interacts with the processors of the various working units and manages automatic operation of the entire machine in accordance with a predefined program. The machine is characterized by operating speeds which are slower than those of plants of the known type, said speeds being offset partly by the high number of bottles produced during each cycle, and basically differs from the known plants owing to the substantial lack of operating defects since, as a result of the abovementioned slow speeds, the individual operations may be performed with a high degree of precision and the bottles may be transported from one station to another with positive control. For all of the above reasons, the machine in question is competitive compared to the machines and plants of the known type.
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patent: 1260296 (1996-04-01), None
Kim Eugene
Larson & Taylor PLC
Techne Technipack Engineering Italia S.p.A.
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