GB141120A - Improvements in and relating to a bottle filling or a bottle capping machine or a combined bottle filling and capping machine - Google Patents

Abstract

141,120. Marks, E. C. R., (Creamery Package Manufacturing Co.). Jan. 6, 1919. Bottling; capsules, applying.-In machines in which bottles are filled or capped, or both, the bottle is elevated automatically to the bottling or capping means, or both', by a reciprocatory mechanism and advanced past said means by another reciprocatory mechanism which operates automatically across the line of motion of the bottle due to the first mechanism. The invention is described in connexion with a machine for filling and capping milk bottles. The bottle-supporting table 12, Figs. 1 and 5, is mounted upon studs 13 carried by a drip-pan 11 which forms the upper end of the hollow base or support 10 of the machine. The table has a central opening to accommodate the vertical movements of the elevator, and the slide means for advancing the bottles a works on the table. The adjustable milk-tank 16 is supported by standards 14 which pass through bearings 15, 20 on the pan 11 and base 10 and have their screwed lower ends engaged by screwed sleeves 21 having spiral gears 22 meshing with spiral gears 23 on an horizontal hand-shaft 24. The elevating and advancing mechanisms are driven from an electric motor 26 mounted beneath the table 12. A wheel 29 on a shaft 30 is driven by a belt from the motor, and can be clutched to the shaft by a sliding collar operated by an arm 32 on a shaft 33 rocked by hand-levers 34. A shaft 40 driven by gearing from the shaft 30 carries a pinion 41 gearing with a wheel 42 which is secured to a cam-member 44 louse on the transverse shaft 45. The bottles rest on plates 56, Fig. 5, on the vertical longitudinal ribs 55 of a platform 54 carried by a post 50 guided in a bearing 51 on the pan 11. Two bifurcated plates 52 at the lower end of the post 50 straddle the cam 44 and a collar 46 on the shaft 45, and a roller 53 mounted on a pin fixed in the plates 52 bears against the cam 44. The table 12 has two longitudinal ribs 57, Figs. 6 and 7, at opposite sides of the opening 58, and three intermediate ribs 59 extending from the rear edge of the opening 58 to form guide-channels for the rows of bottles on the table. The bottle-advancing slide 60 consists of a transverse front portion 61 with a number of rearwardly-extending parallel bars 62 having lateral lugs 63 to provide spaces between the bars for the bottles. Grooves in the bars 62 receive the ribs 57, 59 on the table, and the leading edges of the lugs 63 are bevelled so that each pair provides a crutch for centring a bottle. The slide 60 is operated by arms 65 carried by a rock-shaft 66 having an arm 67 connected by an adjustable link to the lower end of a lever 72 on a shaft 73, a roller 74 at the joint between the link 71 and lever 72 bearing against the cam 44. The upper end of the lever 72 is acted upon by a spring 75. A hand-wheel 68 with a latch 69 enables the length of the link 71 and position of the slide 60 to be adjusted, and gauge marks on one or more of the ribs 57 indicate the correct position of the slide 60 on the table for different sizes of bottles. Each filling-valve 17, Fig. 3, comprises a milk-tube 77 which is slidable vertically in a bearing 78 in the bottom of the tank and is pressed by a spring 83 against a head 82 at the lower end of a vent-tube 81 passing up through the tube 77. A spring 84, engaging a collar 85 on the tube 81, supports the parts in operative position. When filling quart bottles, each transverse row of bottles is raised successivelyÀagainst each of the four rows of valves 17; and when filling smaller bottles, one or more rows of valves are reudered inoperative by raising their vent-tubes until collars 90 thereon pass through openings 89 in a transverse bar 88 placed across a frame 86 resting upon the tank, and inserting a clip 91 between each collar 90 and the bar 88. The capping-devices 19 are supported in a bracket 18 on the side of the tank. In operation, an attendant places bottles in the first transverse row of spaces in the slide 60 at each reciprocation of the slide, the bottles resting at first on the table 12 and later being pushed on to the plates 56 of the elevator. The cam 44 moves the slide rearwardly the distance between two rows of filling-valves. While the slide is in the position shown in Fig. 1, the elevator is raised so that the ribs 55 and plates 56 pass up between the bars 62 of the slide and ca.rry the bottles above the slide, whereupon the slide is moved back to its starting- position, so that when the elevator is lowered, the bottles will occupy the second row of spaces and the first row will be empty.