ORDERLY BOTTLE-FEEDING MACHINE

摘要

A bottle straightening and aligning machine (13) comprises a bulk bottle loading hopper (11) whose internal side wall bears paddles (12) for pushing the bottles onto a helical guide (14) which extends along the internal wall. At the end of the guide the bottles (13) are unloaded into an annular compartment (15) arranged around the periphery of the upper edge of the hopper where the bottles are taken to run in cradles (21) on a support (18) broken to let the bottles fall into straightening conveyors (22) rotating integrally with the cradles. From the conveyors the bottles are unloaded into peripheral compartments of a ring (20) rotating coaxially around the hopper. The compartments formed in the ring are in a number which is a multiple of the number of the cradles (21) and the conveyors (22) and the rotation speed of the ring (20) is greater than the rotation speed of the cradles (21) to have a peripheral velocity greater than the pitch between two consecutive compartments for each rotation of the cradle corresponding to the unloading of a bottle from each cradle. The hopper and the ring are driven by a common motor by means of mechanisms and gears.