GB1347495A - Apparatus for conveying and aligning bottles - Google Patents

Abstract

1347495 Orienting articles on conveyers SEIKO ISUZU MOTOR CO Ltd 9 March 1971 6375/71 Heading B8A Bottles which are initially placed in a state of disorder on the loading ends of a series of parallel endless conveyers 2 (only one of which is shown) adjacent a fence board 22 are conveyed towards respective shoots 11 by said conveyers 2 and are aligned along the surface of the said conveyers by means of aligning plates 5 pivotally mounted adjacent the edges of the conveyers 2, the plates 5 on either side of a given conveyer 2 carrying out an alternate reciprocating motion such that any bottles which initially lie transversely of their conveyer 2 and thus protrude beyond an edge or the edges of the conveyer are struck by the aligning plate or plates 5 thus causing them to lie along the length of the conveyer. The lower edges of the plates 5 rest on the peripheries of eccentric cam discs 8 fixed to a driven shaft 7, and arms 10, which are mounted on a rotatable shaft 9 above each conveyer 2, knock any upstanding bottles down on to the associated conveyer 2, and a rotatably mounted rod 13 has a pair of laterally extending pins 15, 16 whose separation distance is less than the width of a bottle, such that a bottle which approaches the discharge end of its conveyer 2 with its neck pointing forward has its neck engaged by the pin 15, Fig. 4 (not shown), thus causing the bottle to fall with its bottom facing downwardly into the shoot 11 whereas a bottle approaching the rod 13 with its bottom forward merely deflects the rod 13, Fig. 5 (not shown), to allow the bottle to fall bottom downward into the associ ated shoot 11. Bottles are held in the shoot 11 by means of a pin 27 which is mounted on a rod 19 which is rotatable about a shaft 25, the pin 27 in the position shown engaging the lowermost bottle in the shoot. After a predetermined time the rod 19 is rotated to the position shown in phantom lines whereby the pin 27 is withdrawn and the pin 26 inserted into the shoot 11, thus allowing the lowermost bottle to fall on to the conveyer 18. When the shoot 11 becomes filled with bottles a microswitch 20 operates to suspend the rotation of the conveyer belt drive pulleys 3.