摘要 |
A bottle (B) having a downwardly widening neck and having the skirt (S) of a closure in place on the neck, is de-skirted by forcibly displacing the skirt towards the bottom of the bottle, whereby the relative displacement of the skirt with respect to the neck of the bottle causes the skirt to split. This is done by gripping the skirt between a plurality of jaws (46) which are moved radially inwardly to grip the skirt, and then downwardly with respect to the bottle. The skirt is thereafter removed from the bottle by means of jets of air (21) which are directed to the split skirt from underneath, thereby to blow the skirt upwardly off the neck of the bottle.
|