US3389817A - Hydraulic bottle uncaser - Google Patents

Description

June 25, 1968 PUGH 3,389,817

HYDRAULIC BOTTLE UNCASER Filed March 2;, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet l June 25, 1968 A. G. PUGH 3,389,817

HYDRAULIC BOTTLE UNCASER Filed March 2;, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet United States Patent 13 Claims. (1214-3041 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Method and apparatus for hydraulically uncasing bottles from disintegratable paperboard cartons by subjecting the cartons first to the action of fixed jets of high velocity, high pressure liquid, and then subjecting the cartons to the action of moving jets of high velocity, high pressure liquid.

This invention relates to the uncasing of empty bottles. By this term is meant the removal of the contents from a carton. In one of its particular aspects, it is directed to the separation of empty bottles from the paperboard or cardboard carton within which the bottles are situated.

Many means are currently available for the separation of empty bottles from the paperboard or cardboard carton within which they are situated. One way is a purely manual means of lifting the bottles from the cartons and placing the bottles on conveyor means for conveying the bottles to conventional bottle washing operations. Obviously, such manual uncasing is unsuitable in present day high speed technology.

The aforesaid uncasing was improved by the use of mechanical hands which lifted a plurality of bottles simultaneously out of a carton and disposed them on the aforesaid conveyor. This procedure is only operative ef-..

ficiently if there is always entire free access to the carton. One way of assuring such free access is by means of the machine disclosed and claimed in Canadian Patent No. 673,346 issued Oct. 29, 1963 to Molson Breweries Limited and United States Patent No. 3,158,055 issued Nov. 29, 1964, to Molson Breweries Limited.

However, there remains the problem of disposal of the cartons. This has in the past been done by means of presses. However, this is a dangerous operation; it involves use of manpower; and it is noisy and dusty.

Accordingly, it is a broad object of the present invention to provide a novel carton uncaser apparatus and method.

An object of an aspect of this invention is the provision of a highly mechanized bottle uncaser in which the bottles and the carton are separated from one another mechanically.

An object of another aspect of the present invention is the provision of a highly mechanized bottle uncaser apparatus and method wherein the disposal of the carton is automatically handled.

According to a broad aspect of the present invention there is provided, in a method for hydraulically uncasing bottles from a disintegratable carton the improvement of continuously conveying the carton containing the bottles along an elevated feed path; and subjecting each carton to the action of downwardly directed fixed and moving blasts of high velocity, high pressure aqueous liquid, preferably water.

Other aspects of each of the above described aspects of the present invention include the steps of removing the disintegrated carton from said elevated feed path by passing said disintegrated carton across said feed path;

7 and continumg the conveying of said bottles along said feed path.

3,389,817 Patented June 25, 1968 By another aspect of the present invention, there is provided, in an hydraulic uncaser:

(i) An elevated perforated platform;

(ii) An endless conveyor disposed a predetermined distance above the platform;

(iii) Means associated with the conveyor for selectively gripping bottles;

(iv) A first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles and liquid inlet means to said nozzles, and

(v) A second jetting station, spaced from the first jetting station downstream therefrom comprising a plurality of movable nozzles and water inlet means to said nozzles. Preferably, the movable nozzles are rotatable or wig-wag nozzles. It is an alternative preferred aspect of the present invention to use 6 to 10 nozzles in series at approximately 800 p.s.i.g. pressure and a total of about US. gallons/minute flow. Preferably, there is also provided conveyor means for conveying cartons in a selected direction along an elevated feed path.

Preferably, the aforesaid apparatus may also include:

(i) Conveyor means for conveying cartons in a selected direction along an elevated feed path;

(ii) Conveyor means for conveying bottles in said preselected direction along the elevated feed path and disposed downstream of the second jetting station; and/or (iii) An endless conveyor means disposed a preselected distance below the perforated platform for conveying a slurry of said disintegrated cartons to a waste disposal means.

In the latter preferred embodiment, the waste disposal means may comprise (a) a screw conveyor, feeding (b) a baling apparatus,

(c) means for compressing the disintegrated carton, and

(d) means for recovering water separated from the compressed waste.

The aforesaid water recovery means may comprise:

(e) a sump (f) a sump pump connected to the sump (g) a nozzle disposed over the endless conveyor means (ii) and (h) a water line connecting said sump pump to said nozzle.

In each of the preferred embodiments, there may additionally be included:

(iv) Screen means below the conveyor means (ii) for separating finely divided waste from water and for conveying the waste to the waste disposal and the water to a storage tank, and

(v) Pump means connecting the tank to the nozzles at the jetting stations.

By another aspect of the present invention there is provided, in an hydraulic encaser, the combination of:

(A) Means for moving cartons in a selected direction along an elevated feed path; and

(B) An uncaser comprising:

(ii) an elevated perforated platform along the elevated feed path;

(iii) an endless conveyor disposed a predetermined distance above the platform;

(iv) means associated with the endless conveyor for selectively gripping bottles; and at least one of the following two jetting stations, namely;

(v) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles and water inlet means to said nozzles; and (vi) a second jetting station spaced from said first jetting station downstream therefrom and comprising a plurality of rotatable nozzles and water inlet means to said nozzles.

(ii) an elevated perforated platform along the elevated feed path;

(iii) an endless conveyor disposed a predetermined distance above the platform;

(iv) means associated with that conveyor for selectively gripping bottles; and at least one of the following two jetting stations, namely:

(v) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles and water inlet means to said nozzles; and

(vi) a second jetting station spaced from said first jetting station downstream therefrom and comprising a plurality of rotatable nozzles and water inlet means to said nozzles.

(E) Conveyor means for conveying bottles in the preselected direction along the elevated feed path downstream of the uncaser; and

(F) Endless conveyor means disposed a preselected distance below the perforated platform for conveying a slurry of the disintegrated cartons to a waste disposal means.

In the accompanying drawings,

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic central longitudinal cross-section of one embodiment of a preferred apparatus and process of the present invention, and

FIG. 2 is a section along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

In general, the process and apparatus of the present invention involves conveying the cartons containing bottles along a conveying stage; subjecting the cartons and hottles to a high velocity water carton demolishing stage; conveying the bottles (essentially rid of their labels but not necessarily entirely free thereof) to a bottle washing operation (not shown) and removing waste pulp preferably by subjecting the pulp to a pulp baling stage.

Turning now specifically to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows the preliminary conveying stage. This consists of a first horizontal conventional free-rollered conveyor 11, includ ing a pair of parallel side rails, only one of which 12 is shown, between which are freely-rotatably mounted a plurality of regularly spaced apart roller conveyors 13. The cartons containing empty bottles are manually loaded onto conveyor 11 and manually propelled forwardly to a belt conveyor 14.

Belt conveyor 14 comprises a driven belt having an upper carton-engaging surface 15 and a lower surface 16 entraining on lower roller 17 and an upper roller 18, at least one of which rollers are driven. Belt conveyor 14 conveys and elevates cartons from first horizontal conveyor 11 to second horizontal conveyor 19.

Second horizontal conveyor 19' is also a conventional free-rollered conveyor comprising a pair of parallel rails, only one of which 20 is shown between which are freely rotatably mounted a plurality of regularly spaced apart rollers 21. The cartons containing the empty bottles are shown as 22, and are seen to be in end-to-end contact with one another.

At the leading end of conveyor 19 is a case indexing device (not shown) whose purpose is to permit the cartons to advance to the next stage at preselected synchronized intervals of time. Since the construction of such case indexing device does not form part of the present invention, it will not be further described at this time.

The cartons are then conveyed by a conveyor to the carton demolishing station. This station includes an open platform 39, composed of a plurality of spaced apart rods (see FIG. 2) upon which the cartons 22, and later the bottles 41 are adapted to rest and slide over.

Spaced a predetermined distance above the platform 39 is a driven, bottle-holding conveyor 42 comprising a fiighted conveyor belt 43 having upstanding therefrom a plurality of sets of spaced apart flight bars 44, upon each of which is rigidly mounted a plurality of bottle holders 45. Belt 43 entrains a forward driven drum 46 and an upper, free rolling rear roller 47 and a lower, free-rolling rear roller 48.

Spaced a predetermined distance below platform 39 is a flighted conveyor 49 comprising an open mesh screen belt 50 (preferably 4 mesh screen) having a plurality of upstanding regularly spaced flight bars 51 thereon, and entraining a rear drum 52 and a forward drum 53, at least one of which is driven by means not shown. Also associated with conveyor 49 is a screen box 54, preferably made of 4 mesh screen, to retain particles of pulp of larger size than 4 mesh.

Immediately below conveyor 49 is a vibratory screen 55, which slopes downwardly to the rear. This screen is preferably of mesh, i.e., to retain pulp of size between 4 mesh and 60 mesh. All pulp smaller in size than 60 mesh falls into reserve supply and settling tank 56 from which the water is filtered and pumped out through outlet line 56a by pump 57 driven by motor 58, for a purpose to be described hereinafter.

The demolishing of the cartons 22 and removal of the labels from the bottles 41 is accomplished by high velocity water jets. The jets are provided by a first fixed jet 59 and followed by a second moving jet 60. Alternately, there may be a series of six to eight fixed or moving jets 59, 60, the water preferably flowing at a rate of 10 U8. gallons/minute each at a pressure of about 800 p.s.i.g. The water emerging from jets 59 and 60 may be preferably flowing at a rate of 300 gallons/minute at a pressure of between about 300 and 500 p.s.i.

The movable nozzle 60 is shown in FIGURES l and 2 to be a rotatable nozzle but a wig-wag nozzle or six to eight fixed nozzles are also operative. The nozzles 59 and 60 are supplied by lines 61, 62 and 63. At the junction of lines 61 and 63 is a conventional rotatable joint 64, much as style 30 Chekson rotating joint. Nozzle 60' is caused to rotate by means of pulley 65 and belt 66 arrangement connected to motor 67 and drive pulley 68, and a bearing assembly 69. Preferably, the nozzle rotates at a speed of 200-400 revolutions/minute.

A bottle conveyor 70, com-prising a belt 71 entraining a drum 72 conveys the bottles 41 to a conventional soaker (not shown).

The waste pulp (derived from the demolished cartons 22 and the labels on the bottles 41) is conveyed to chute 73 (via conveyor 51) and thence to a screw conveyor 74. The pulp is formed into a flowable slurry by means of a Water wash from nozzle 75 flowing from water line 76. The origin of part of the water in line 76 will be explained hereinafter. Any pulp of size between 4 mesh and 60 mesh will be conveyed to chute 73 by vibratory screen 55.

Screw conveyor 74 is connected to supply hopper 77 the outlet of which is connected to the inlet of a conventional baling press 78. Then a water press cylinder 79 provided with a piston 80 driven by a rod 81 is fitted at one end of baler 78. A sump 83 is connected to sump pump by outlet line 84 and line 76 is connected to the outlet of sump pump 85.

Operation Cartons 22 are manually loaded onto conveyor 11 and are mechanically conveyed by conveyor 16 and propelled along conveyor 19 to case indexing device 23. The cartons 22 are then subjected to the high pressure action of the fixed nozzle 59 and the moving nozzle 60, after the bottles themselves have been gripped by the bottle holders 45. The jets of water demolish the carton 32, and also remove as much as possible labels which may have been on the bottles 41. The bottles are then conveyed to a conventional bottle washing operation (not shown) by conveyor 71.

The demolished carton ends up as pulp and is carried along as an aqueous slurry by conveyor 51 to the chute 73. Additional finely divided pulp is dumped into chute 73 by vibratory screen 55. The aqueous slurry of the pulp is propelled by screw conveyor 74 to the baler 78 where it is compressed to separate the solid pulp from the water. Solid compressed pulp is periodically removed from end 82 of baler 78. Filtered water is sump 83 is pumped by sump pump 85 to be used as the slurry forming water for nozzle 75.

Main water is provided from supply tank 56, from whence it is pumped via line 86a and pump 57.

I claim:

1. A method for hydraulically uncasing bottles from disintegratable paperboard cartons comprising the steps of: conveying said cartons containing said bottles along a feed path, subjecting said cartons first to the action of a fixed jet of high velocity, high pressure liquid to partly disintegrate said cartons, and then subjecting each carton to the action of a moving jet of highwelocity, high pressure liquid to complete disintegration of said carton.

2. A method for hydraulically uncasing bottles from disintegratable paperboard cartons comprising the steps of: conveying said cartons containing said bottles along a feed path, subjecting said cartons first to the action of a plurality of fixed jets of high velocity, high pressure liquid to partly distiutegrate said cartons, and then subjecting each carton to the action of a plurality of moving jets of high velocity, high pressure liquid to complete disintegration of said carton.

3. Method as described in claim 1 wherein said liquid is water.

4. Method as described in claim 2 wherein said liquid is water.

5. In an hydraulic uncaser:

(i) an elevated perforated platform;

(ii) an endless conveyor disposed a predetermined distance above said platform;

(iii) means associated with said conveyor for selectively gripping bottles;

(iv) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles directed toward said conveyor and adapted to direct high pressure liquid streams toward said conveyor to partly disintegrate said cartons and aqueous liquid inlet means to said nozzles; and

(v) a second jetting station spaced from said first jetting station downstream therefrom comprising a plurality of movable nozzles adapted to direct high pressure liquid streams toward said conveyor to complete disintegration of said cartons and aqueous liquid inlet means to said nozzles.

6. The hydraulic uncaser of claim 5 wherein said; movable nozzles at said second jetting station (v) comprising a plurality of rotatable nozzles and water inlet means to said nozzles.

7. The hydraulic uncaser of claim 6 including (i) conveyor means for conveying cartons in a selected direction along an elevated feed path; and

(ii) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles and water inlet means to said nozzles.-

8. The hydraulic uncaser of claim 7 including conveyor means situated downstream from said second jetting station for conveying bottles in said preselected direction along said elevated feed path.

9. The hydraulic uncaser of claim 8 including an endless conveyor means disposed a preselected distance below said perforated platform for conveying a slurry of said disintegrated cartons to a waste disposal means.

16. The uncaser of claim 9 wherein said waste disposal means comprises:

(a) a screw conveyor, feeding (b) a 'baling apparatus (c) means for compressing said disintegrated carton,

and

(d) means for recovering water separated from said compressed waste.

11. The uncaser of claim 10 wherein said water recovery means comprises:

(e) a sump (f) a sump pump connected to said sump (g) a nozzle disposed over said endless conveyor means (vii) and (h) a water line connecting said sump pump to said nozzle.

12. The uncaser of claim 7 including:

(viii) screen means below said conveyor means (vii) for separating finely divided waste from water and for conveying said waste to said waste disposal and said water to a storage tank, and

(ix) pump means connecting said tank to said nozzles (v) and (vi).

13. An hydraulic uncaser comprising:

(A) first conveyor means for conveying paperboard cartons along a first elevated feed path;

(B) second conveyor means comprising an endless flighted chain conveyor;

(C) means for regularly periodically placing a selected carton onto said fiighted chain conveyor;

(D) means for moving cartons in a selected direction along an elevated feed path;

(E) an uncaser comprising:

(ii) an elevated perforated platform along said elevated feed path;

(iii) an endless conveyor disposed at predetermined distance above said platform;

(iv) means in said conveyor for selectively gripping bottles;

(v) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles directed toward said conveyor and adapted to direct high pressure liquid streams toward said conveyor to partly disintegrate said cartons and water inlet means to said nozzles;

(vi) a second jetting station spaced from said first jetting station downstream therefrom and comprising a plurality of rotatable nozzles adapted to direct high pressure liquid streams toward said conveyor to complete disintegration of said cartons and water inlet means to said nozzles;

(F) conveyor means downstream of said uncaser for conveying bottles in the preselected direction along said elevated feed path; and

(G) endless conveyor means disposed a preselected distance below the perforated platform for conveying a slurry of the disintegrated carton to a waste disposal means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,423,342 7/1922 LoeW et a1. 134-104 2,314,048 3/1943 Ladewig 134-104 2,876,488 3/1959 Zebarth 134-104 X 2,916,216 12/1959 Altmann et al 24121 X HUGO O. SCHULZ, Primary Examiner.

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