EP0012429A1

EP0012429A1 - Automated filling and stopper-applying machine for vessels intended to contain liquids in general

Info

Publication number: EP0012429A1
Application number: EP79105111A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Giovanni Velo
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1978-12-14
Filing date: 1979-12-12
Publication date: 1980-06-25
Also published as: ES487443A1; IT7882564A0; GR82356B; IT1106465B

Abstract

The machine comprises a substantially rectilinearly extending conveyor (3) whereat are provided a filling unit (20) having a plurality of liquid delivering nozzles (21) effective to be inserted into vessels (6) standing on the conveyor (3) and a stopper-applying unit (30) operative on the filled vessels. A single motor (40) operates to actuate the filling and stopper-applying units (20, 30) and incrementally advance the conveyor (3).

Description

This invention relates to an automated filling and stopper-applying machine for vessels intended to contain liquids in general.
Currently known and used are several types of filling and stopper-applying machines, or "bottling" machines, for such vessels as bottles, jugs, and other containers of various shapes, which are normally utilized for containing wines, liquors, or other liquid products.
Such "bottling" machines comprise, in their more frequently occurring form, a feeding conveyor, having any suitable configuration, which is operative to transfer or feed empty vessels to be filled to a filling station and then to a stopper-applying station, downstream whereof additional processing stations may be provided such as a labelling unit.
In conventional "bottling" machines, the filling station is prevailingly of the carousel type where, in a way, the vessel to be filled is picked up from the conveyor and directed to a generally circular side track, whereat a filling or delivery nozzle fills the vessel to a desired level. After the vessel has been so filled, it is re-directed to the conveyor and transferred to successive processing stations.
As relates to the stopper-applying station, the empty vessel, or bottle, is again picked up, or somehow shunted, from the feeding conveyor and directed to the stopper-applying station, where it is deposited onto a platform which raises the vessel and aligns it with a stopper applicator head, thereby the vessel is sealed with a desired type of stopper.
Conventional machines have in first place the disadvantage that their bulk size is considerable, as due to the presence of two separate processing stations, i.e. the filling and stopper-aoplying stations, powered by individual motors.
A further drawback of conventional bottling machines is that the filling of the vessels by means of filling stations of. the carousel type considerably slows down the entire processing cycle, since each vessel, or bottle, is required to stop at its respective filling nozzle for a relatively long time, namely until the vessel has been properly filled.
Moreover, an added problem is encountered at the stopper applicator head, because the vessels, or bottles, must be moved vertically upwards to engage with the stopper applicator head, which aggravates the problem of the production cycle downtime.
Another problem is the fact that conventional machines have poor versatility or flexibility, in that they involve major modifications whenever different size or shape vessels are to be handled, this being also the case when the stopper configuration must be changed, because in practice the entire stopper applying station must be replaced with another such station having the desired features.
This invention sets out to eliminate the above difficulties by providing an automated filling and stopper-applying machine affording the possibility of carrying out both the filling and stopper-applying operations on vessels which are not removed from the feeding conveyor whereon they stand, the conveyor having a rectilinear pattern in its active run, both in order to reduce the machine bulk and considerably simplify the structure thereof.
Within that general aim, it is possible to arrange that the automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to the invention is particularly versatile and capable of accommodating vessels of different shapes and sizes without involving structural changes or replacement of components.
It is further possible to arrange that the filling and stopper-applying machine of this invention is particularly useful for small or medium size plants, since it can be easily transported and ensures a high hourly output.
It is further possible to arrange that the filling and stopper-applying machine of this invention can be easily constructed from commonly available elements and is highly competitive from a purely economical standpoint.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automated filling and stopper-applying machine for vessels intended to contain liquids in general, characterised in that it comprises a vessel feeding conveyor of the closed loop type having a substantially rectilinearly extending active run, at said active run there being provided a filling unit including a plurality of liquid delivering nozzles which can be inserted into vessels standing on said active run, and a stopper-applying unit operative on vessels standing on said active run and filled with liquid from said delivery nozzles, there being further provided a drive for actuating said filling and stopper-applying units and for incrementally advancing said conveyor, said drive being connected to a single motor.
Further features and advantages will be more clearly understood by reference to a detailed description of an automated filling and stopper-applying machine for vessels intended to contain liquids in general, as illustrated by way of example and not of limitation in the accompanying drawings, where:

Figure 1 shows schematically the machine according to the invention in a first operational stage corresponding to the vessel filling and stopper-applying step;
Figure 2 shows the machine according to the invention in a different operational stage including the step of advancing the feeding conveyor and, accordingly, the vessels standing thereon; and
Figure 3 is a schematical top plan view of the feeding conveyor.

With reference to the cited drawing figures, the automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to this invention comprises a load-bearing frame indicated generally at 1, which is mounted on wheels 2 for greater convenience in moving the machine to the place of utilisation.
Said machine further comprises a conveyor for feeding vessels in general, which in this embodiment is a continuous or closed loop conveyor 3 driven by a sprocket 4 the actuation whereof will be explained hereinafter, and passed around an idler 5.
The conveyor 3 has its active run, i.e. the run effective to transport the vessels which in the example shown happen to be bottles 6, located at the top along the top portion of the supporting frame 1 and following a substantially rectilinear pattern.
Said conveyor is provided on its outward facing side with abutment and positioning vanes 7 which extend perpendicularly to said conveyor and transversely to the longitudinal extension thereof.
The abutment vanes 7 are spaced apart at even intervals which correspond, in practice, to the outline dimension of the vessels or bottles being used.
At the leading portion of the active run of the conveyor 3, which portion is shown on the left in the accompanying drawings, there is provided a loading platform 10 for depositing empty vessels onto the conveyor 3, and beside the active run 3, guiding strips 11 are provided which are carried each by one pair of hinged arms 12 effective to impart to the strips 11 a parallel translational movement such as to accommodate vessels of different widths.
At the cited active run of the conveyor 3, there is provided a filling station, generally indicated at 20, or unit which comprises a plurality of filling nozzles 21 of a type known per se, which fill in succession the vessel or bottle 6; more specifically, the first of the nozzles 21 introduces part of the liquid into the vessel 6, the second nozzle adds a further amount of the liquid, and so forth, until the last of the nozzles, indicated at 21a, tops the liquid inside the vessel up to the desired level.
Said nozzles 21 and 21a are, as usual, connected to a liquid supply tank or reservoir 22.
It should be noted that the center distance between the individual nozzles, which are aligned to one another above said active run of the conveyor 3, is equal to the distance separating any two abutment vanes 7.
Furthermore, the nozzles 21 are positioned such as to have their center-connecting line along the centerline of the conveyor 3.
The nozzles 21 are carried by a cross-member 25 which is enabled to move in a vertical direction to bring the nozzles themselves from a lower position whereat they engage with the bottles 6 and fill them, to an upper position whereat the nozzles are moved away from the bottles and allowed to stand in a closed condition, and/or viceversa.
Downstream of the cited filling station or unit 20, a stopper-applying station or unit 30 is provided, of a type known per se, which may be so designed as to either apply cork stoppers, screw-on stoppers, caps, or any other suitable stoppers.
A unique feature of the invention is that the stopper applicator head, indicated at 31, i.e. the part of the machine which applies the stopper proper, is mounted on the same cross-member 25 which carries the nozzles 21, thereby the stopper, with the arrangement just described, is applied to a bottle while the latter is standing on the active run of the feeding conveyor, that is to say, the bottle is not required to leave the conveyor, as is the case instead with conventional machines.
It should be noted that the distance between the stopper applicator head 31 and the last of the nozzles 21 is equal to the center distance between any two nozzles 21, and preferably a multiple thereof.
An essential feature of the invention is that a single or common motor is provided to drive the filling station 20 and stopper applicator head 30, and to stepwise drive the conveyor 1 by increments which are equal to the distance separating any two successive abutment vanes of the conveyor itself.
The common motor for the bottling machine, which is schematically indicated at 40 in the drawings, is connected-, through a reduction gear, to a camming element 41 which acts against a vertical rod or push rod 42 carrying the cited cross-member 25.
More specifically, on the push rod 42, an upper cam follower 43 and lower cam follower 44 are provided which are arranged on opposite sides with respect to the rotation axis of the cam 41.
Consequently, the engagement of the cam 41 with the upper cam follower 43 or with the lower cam follower 44 will impart a reciprocating vertical movement to the push rod 42, and accordingly to the stopper applicator head 31 and nozzles 21 located on the cross-member 25, which is in turn carried by the cited push rod 42 such as to enable its height position to be varied.
With said cam 41 being located off-center with respect to the rotation axis of the cam, there is articulated the end of an arm 50 which has, at its other end, a pawl 51 engageable with a ball 52 of a plurality of balls 52 evenly distributed circunfer- entially around an entrainement disk 53 associated with the sprocket wheel 4 for driving the conveyorbelt 3.
More specifically, the arm 50 will be subjected, owing to its off-centered connection to the cam 41, to a reciprocating movement including a forward stroke during which the pawl 51 engages with one of the balls, or rollers, 52 to cause a forward rotation of the sprocket wheel 4 and accordingly of the conveyor 3, and a rearward stroke of the arm 50 during which the pawl 51 disengages itself from the ball or roller 52 whereon it was acting to engage the following ball or roller.
This connection of the sprocket wheel 4 to the cam 51 through the arm 50 causes the conveyor belt 4 to be in practice subjected to a graduated advance movement followed by a standing phase, and so forth.
The cam 41 has a projecting or active portion which spans approximately a wider sector than 180° of the cam and is arranged such as to lower the nozzles 21 and stopper applicator head 31 during the conveyor stops, while it also raises the nozzles 21 during the conveyor movements.
More specifically, with reference in particular to Figure 1, by rotating the cam 41 in the direction of the arrow F, the active portion of the cam is caused to engage the upper cam follower 43 and thus move the nozzles 21 and stopper applicator head 31. At the same time, the pawl 51 is caused to press against the roller or ball 52 which it engages to produce a one step advance movement, i.e. a movement equal to the distance separating any two abutment vanes 7 on the conveyor.
Upon completion of this phase, with the continued rotation of the cam 41, the pawl 51, owing to the arm 50 moving rearwardly with respect to the disk 53, no longer drives the conveyor belt forwards, which is thus allowed to remain stationary, while the active portion of the cam engages the lower cam follower to cause the cross-member 25 and accordingly the nozzles 21 and stopper applicator head 31 to move down and process the bottles or vessels 6.
It should be noted, moreover, that with the operation just described the liquid is introduced into the vessels 6 from the various nozzles arranged in succession or sequentially beneath which the bottle or or vessel 6 is placed, i.e. each nozzle will introduce into the bottle but part of the filling liquid. This is an aspect of great import, inasmuch as it allows the wcrk times to be reduced considerably because it is obvious that within the frame of the overall production cycle the standing time during which part only of the liquid is to be introduced into the bottle is considerably shorter.
As mentioned hereinabove, on the conveyor 3 there are provided abutment vanes which have the function of providing an accurate reference for the position of the bottles onto the conveyor belt; in other words, the bottles which are being deposited onto the conveyor belt from the loading platform could arrange themselves at random in the space included between the vanes; to avoid such a situation, there is provided on - the strips a braking device 60 which brakes the bottle until the latter contacts a vane 7 which, by urging the bottle on, will act as an accurate reference for the bottle position and consequently allow the conveyor to be stopped such as to leave the bottle axis exactly aligned with the axis of the nozzles 21 and stopper applicator head 31.
It should be further added that when the size of the bottle is changed, the location of the bottle axis could also change with respect to the space included between two vanes 7. For this purpose, there is provided in the disk 53 a slot 70 shaped as a segment of a circle, which is effective to allow the movement of the conveyor belt to be at all times adjusted such that during its stop time the axis of the bottle or vessel 6 is exactly aligned with the nozzles 21.
The inventive machine further comprises a control panel 80 for controlling the machine operation in accordance with contingent requirements and the type of bottle being handled.
It will be apparent from the foregoing description that the invention achieves its objects, and in particular that the bottles undergo the filling and stopper applying process without being removed from the feeding conveyor, which extends rectilinearly, thus making the machine much more effective and fast, while reducing the constructional complexity thereof.
Moreover, by providing filling nozzles 21 which only fill the bottles partially, the stop times are reduced to afford a faster cycle of operation.
Another important feature is that a single cross-member, i.e. the cross-member 25, simultaneously operates the filling nozzles and stopper applicator head 31.
This advantage results from the use of a single or common drive for the entire machine, which includes the cam 41, the push rod 42, and the arm 50 which sets on the rollers or balls 52 of the disk 53; moreover, the machine is driven by a single motor which actuates all the machine moving parts.
It should be added to the foregoing that the rectilinear arrangement of the conveyor would allow, in order to double the hourly output, the installation of a similar conveyor in side-by-side relationship, also provided with a respective filling station and stopper applying station which would be driven again by the same motor.
Furthermore, when required, downstream of the stopper applying head a labelling station or station adapted for performing other operations as normally involved in packaging liquid containers may be provided.
The invention as described is susceptible to many modifications and variations all of which are intended to fall within the purview of the instant inventive concept.
Moreover, all of the details may be replaced with other technically equivalent elements.
In practicing the invention, the materials used, as well as the dimensions and contingent shapes, may be any ones to suit individual requirements.

Claims

1. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine for vessels intended to contain liquids in general, characterised in that it comprises a vessel (6) feeding conveyor (3) of the closed loop type having a substantially rectilinearly extending active run, at said active run there being provided a filling unit (20) including a plurality of liquid delivering nozzles (21,21a) which can be inserted into vessels (6) standing on said actiye run, and a stopper-applying unit (30) operative on vessels standing on said active run and filled with liquid from said delivery nozzles (21,21a), there being further provided a drive (41-44, 50-53) for actuating said filling (20) and stopper (30) applying units and for incrementally advancing said conveyor, said drive (41-44, 50-53) being connected to a single motor (40)

2. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to Claim 1, characterised in that it comprises a load-bearing frame (1) which is mounted on wheels (2) and has associated therewith said motor (40), said filling unit (20), said stopper-applying unit (30), and said conveyor (3).

3. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to the preceding claims, characterised in that said conveyor comprises a segmented conveyor belt (3) running around a drive sprocket wheel (4) and an idler (5), said conveyor belt (3) having on its outward facing side abutment vanes (7) extending substantially perpendicular with respect to a plane defined by said conveyor (3) and substantially transversally with respect to the longitudinal extension of said conveyor belt (3), said abutment vanes (7) being evenly spaced apart from one another.

4. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to the preceding claims, characterised in that said liquid delivering nozzles (21,21a) are aligned to one another and positioned above the centerline of said conveyor (3), said liquid delivering nozzles (21,21a) being spaced apart from one another by a distance equal to or being an integer multiple of the distance separating any two adjacent abutment vanes (7).

5. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to the preceding claims, characterised in that said nozzles (21,21a) are carried by a vertically reciprocable cross-member (25).

6. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that said nozzles (21,21a) are operative to introduce each part of the liquid amount required to fill said vessels (6).

7. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that said stopper-applying unit (30) comprises a stopper applicator head (31) which is reciprocable vertically and carried by said cross-member (25) supporting said liquid delivering nozzles (21,21a).

8. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that said drive actuating said filling unit (20) and said stopper-applying unit (30), as well as advancing incrementally said conveyor (3), comprises a cam (4₁) rotated by said motor (40) and engaging, through a lower cam follower (44) and upper cam follower (43), a vertical push rod (42) carrying said cross-member (25), said cam (41) being articulated excentrically to the end of an arm (50) having its other end provided with a pawl (51) engaging rollers or balls (52) evenly distributed on a disk (53) associated with said sprocket wheel (4) driving said conveyor (3).

9. An automated fillng and stopper-applying machine according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that on said disk (53) there is provided a through slot (70) in the shape of a segment of a circle, which is adapted for allowing an angular position phase displacement between said disk (53) and said sprocket wheel (4).

10. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that it comprises, at said active run of said conveyor (3), a pair of guiding strips (11) arranged opposite each other and being carried by articulated arms (12) for parallelly displacing said strips (11) such as to position them in accordance with the size of the vessels (6) standing on said conveyor (3).

11. An automated filling and stopper-applying machine according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that it comprises, upstream of said filling unit, a braking device (60) acting on said vessels (6) to position them in contact with that abutment vane (7) which happens to be directly upstream of said vessel with respect to the direction of advance of said conveyor belt.