Container lifting, transporting and releasing apparatus

摘要

A case packer and/or case unloader apparatus especially but not exclusively designed for packing small bottles in an orderly pattern into a shipping carton, or conversely, removing a case load of such bottles from a carton has a horizontally reciprocable carriage from which is suspended a vertically movable lifting frame. This frame carries spaced pairs of bars movable lengthwise relative to each other. Each bar has a spaced series of depending container engaging fingers with the fingers on one bar having lateral projections thereon extending in a direction opposed to lateral projections on the fingers of the other bar. By sliding the two bars of the pair in opposite directions, the fingers will approach or recede from each other. With the fingers of each pair close together, the frame may be lowered to enter a pair of fingers into the neck of each bottle of a prearranged group. By then moving the bars in opposite directions, the projections on the fingers engage the interior of the bottles. So engaged, the frame is lifted, lifting the bottles in their prearranged pattern. With projections on the fingers arranged in confronting relation to each other, the fingers may grip the exterior of the bottle necks. The apparatus by which the bottles are arranged in a predetermined pattern is an adaptation of that used in conventional case packers for larger containers.