BOTTLE ORIENTATION UNIT

摘要

BOTTLE ORIENTATION UNIT An infeed conveyor, including a pair of opposed and spaced belts coacting with the opposed sides of bottles passing therebetween, moves bottles onto the main conveyor of a bottle orientation unit which rotates through 180.degree. any of the bottles not properly oriented according to the disposition of a handle, label or other criteria, so that all bottles leaving the unit are identically oriented for subsequent processing. The main conveyor, of conventional chain conveyor type construction with moving flights disposed beneath the bottles, transports the bottles to and through a bottle turning station. Upon entering the station one side of the neck of the bottle moves into contact with a stationary pad while the opposed side of the neck of the bottle is engaged by a belt moving in the direction of bottle movement but at twice the speed of the main conveyor. The combination of the stationary pad and a belt moving at twice the speed of the bottle, coacting together upon the bottles neck result in a velocity on the bottle, in the direction of bottle movement, which is equal to the velocity of bottle movement. That is, the gradient of velocities between the stationary pad and the belt travelling at twice the speed of the bottle is a straight line gradient. Thus a bottle has no speed change imparted to it; but only a pure torque acting upon the bottle to turn the bottle in a predetermined manner and direction. Every bottle, thus subject to the turning action, is urged to turn about an axis of rotation through the neck of the bottle as the bottle passes through said turning station. A gate unit disposed at the turning station, however, when in a forward position coacts with the units frame to define a path which is only wide enough for the bottle to pass through, but not wide enough to permit the bottle to turn. Accordingly, the torque action upon the bottle produces a slippage and the bottle is not re-oriented. When the gate unit is in a retracted position, however, the path is widened and the torque action upon the bottle results in the bottle turning 180.degree. and being re-oriented. A hold down belt acts upon the top of the bottle to urge it against the main conveyor and stabalizes the bottle as it passes to and through the turning station. Suitable electrical controls, disposed and designed to sense the orientation of each bottle, are triggered by other controls which sense that the bottle neck is in a particular location with respect to the turning station. The output of the orientation sensing controls, in conjunction with the output from a control for sensing the positioning of the gate, determine whether the gate is to be moved from its current location and thus whether a bottle is to be turned or not.