METHOD AND ' LINE FOR CONVEYING CONTAINERS , IN PARTICULAR BOTTLES

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a line for conveying containers, in particular bottles.

The present invention may advantageously be applied to a casing machine for introducing bottles in the corresponding transportation cases, to which the following disclosure will explicitly refer without because of this loosing in generality.

BACKGROUND ART

In the bottling sector, there is known to provide a casing machine comprising a conveying line, that has a belt conveyor defining a substantially horizontal resting plane for the bottles, and is provided with a plurality of parallel feeding channels, each of which is defined on the bottom by the belt conveyor, and is defined on the sides by two side walls arranged at a distance one from the other which is approximately the diameter of a bottle.

The conveying line extends between an inlet station adapted to receive bottles in a sequence and an outlet station, at. which the bottles are stopped by a stop device and are transferred by a clamping head within corresponding transportation cases.

To equip the known casing machines of the above disclosed type as a function of the format of the bottles, two types of conveying lines are normally used.

According to a first type, the conveying line is provided with a plurality of a interchangeable feeding units, each of which comprises a support frame, and a plurality of side walls fixed on the support frame so as to define a plurality of feeding channels having a constant width other than the width of the feeding channels of the other feeding units.

The replacement of the above said feeding unit, · required to equip the casing machine as a function of the format of the bottles, implies the presence of a stocking store of the feeding units and of a handling device to displace the feeding units between the casing machine and the stocking store, and is therefore relatively complicated and expensive.

According to the other one of the two above mentioned known types, each side wall is mobile transversally to a feeding direction of the bottles, and is coupled to each side wall adjacent thereto by means of a crank mechanism.

To equip the casing machine as a function of the format of the bottles, the side walls are displaced by corresponding crank mechanisms by respective laws of motion identical to one another so as to selectively control the width of each feeding channel .

Due to the simultaneous displacement of all of the side walls, the belt conveyor, that has a size such as to close the widest feeding channels on the bottom, has relatively high transversal dimensions, while the clamping head must have clamping organs which are mobile transversally to the above said bottle feeding direction, as a function of the width of the feeding channels, and is therefore relatively complicated and expensive.

Furthermore the two known conveying lines of the above disclosed type have in both cases a relatively reduced flexibility as the side walls are distributed transversally ^■ to the feeding direction of the bottles with the same distribution pitch every time.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

It is the object of the present invention to provide a line for conveying containers, in particular bottles, which does not have the above-described drawbacks and which is simple and cost-effective to implement.

According to the present invention, there is provided a line for conveying containers, in particular bottles, as claimed in claims 1 to 9.

The present invention also relates to a casing machine.

According to the present invention a casing machine is provided according to claim 10.

The present invention finally relates to a method for conveying containers, in particular bottles.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for conveying containers, in particular bottles, as claimed in claims 11 to 15. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show a non- limitative embodiment thereof, in which:

figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view, with parts removed for clarity, of a preferred embodiment of the casing machine of the present invention;

figure 2 is a diagrammatic side view, with parts removed for clarity, of the casing machine in figure 1;

figure 3 is a diagrammatic side view, with parts in section and' parts removed for clarity, of a first detail of the casing machine of figures 1 and 2 shown in two different operative positions ;

figure 4 is a diagrammatic plan view, with parts removed for clarity, of the detail in figure 3;

figure 5 is a diagrammatic side view, with parts in section and parts removed for clarity, of a variant of the detail in figure 3 shown in two different operative positions ;

figure' 6 is a diagrammatic plan view, with parts removed for clarity, of the variant in figure 5; and

figure 7 is a diagrammatic side view, with parts removed for clarity, of the second detail of the casing machine of figures 1 and 2.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

With reference to figures 1 and 2, numeral' 1 indicates, as a whole, a casing machine for introducing containers, · in this case bottles 2, in corresponding transportation cases 3.

Machine 1 comprises a first conveying line 4 adapted to feed bottles 2 in a horizontal direction 5; a second conveying line 6 adapted to intermittently feed cases 3 in a horizontal direction 7 transversal to direction 5; and a transfer station 8, at which bottles 2 are withdrawn from line 4 and transferred in corresponding cases 3 by means of a clamping head 9 of the known type.

Line 4 comprises a support frame 10, and a belt conveyor 11 comprising in turn a belt 12, which has a top transportation branch defining a substantially horizontal resting plane P for bottles 2, and is wound like a ring about a plurality of pulleys 13 mounted on frame 10 to rotate, with respect to frame 10 and under the thrust of a known actuating device (not shown) , about respective rotation axes 14 parallel to one another and to direction 7.

Bottles 2 are fed by line 4 along corresponding feeding channels 15, which are side by side and parallel to one another, are defined on the bottom by belt 12, extend in direction 5 between an inlet station 16 adapted to receive in a sequence bottles 2 and station 8, and cooperate with a stop plate 17 mounted at station 8 to stop bottles 2 in direction 5.

Line 4 also comprises a top cross bar 18, which extends in direction 7 and above plane P, is fixed to frame 10 at station 16, and is arranged at a distance from plane P which approximates by excess the maximum height of bottle 2, and a bottom cross bar 19, which extends in direction 7, and is fixed to a front end of frame 10 at station 8.

Each channel 15 - is defined by two side walls 20 parallel to one another, each of which extends in direction 5 and in a substantially vertical containing plane, is slidingly coupled to cross bars 18 and 19 to be displaced, with respect to frame 10, rectilinearly in direction 7, and is locked on cross bars 18 and 19 in direction 7 by means of respective locking devices 21.

According to figures 3 and 4, each device 21 comprises a support bracket 22, which projects vertically from wall 20, and is defined by two plates 23 parallel to one another and orthogonal to direction 7; and a rocker arm 24, which extends between the two plates 23, and is hinged to bracket 22 to oscillate, with respect to bracket 22, about a fulcrum axis 25 parallel to direction 7.

Rocker arm 24 is displaced, and normally maintained, in a locked position (figures 3a and 4a), in which a first arm of the rocker arm 24 engages a rack 26 fixed to the corresponding cross bar 18, 19 parallelly to direction 7, by a spring 27 interposed between bracket 22 and a second arm of rocker arm 24.

Walls 20 are displaced along cross bars 18, 19 by a drawing device 28 comprising, for each cross bar 18, 19, a respective motorised slide 29, which is mobile along the corresponding cross bar 18, 19 in direction 7, and is provided with a device 30 for hooking to a wall 20.

Obviously, according to alternative embodiments (not shown) , the number of slides 29 mounted on each cross bar 18, 19 may be other than one.

Device 30 comprises an actuating cylinder 31, which is mounted on slide 29, extends in a vertical direction 32 orthogonal to directions 5 and 7, and has an outlet rod 33 mobile between a retracted position (figure 3a) , in which cylinder 31 does not interfere with walls 20 and corresponding devices 21, and an extracted position (figure 3b) , in which rod 33 is arranged between plates 23 of a wall 20 so as to hook wall 20 and, at the same time, displace the corresponding rocker arm 24 against the action of corresponding spring 27 from its locked position to an unhooked position (figures 3b and 4b) , in which rocker arm 24 disengages corresponding rack 26.

The variant shown in figures 5 and 6 differs from what is shown in the previous figures only in that, therein, each device 21 is eliminated and replaced by a locking device 34 comprising a support bracket 35 vertically projecting from wall 20; an eccentric toothed wheel 36 mounted on a support shaft 37 rotatably coupled to bracket 35 to rotate, with respect to bracket 35, about a rotation axis 38 parallel to direction 7; a reel 39 coupled to shaft 37; and a toothed actuating pin 40, which is coupled with reel 39, and is slidingly engaged within a hole 41 obtained in bracket 35 parallelly to direction 32.

Pin 40 is displaced, and normally maintained, in a lifted position (figure 5a) , in which shaft 37 rotates about axis 38 (anticlockwise in Figure 5a) to engage wheel 36 in corresponding rack 26, by a spring 42 interposed between bracket 35 and pin 40.

Upon displacement of rod 33 of cylinder 31 in its extracted position, rod 33 engages hole 41 so as to hook to wall 20, displace pin 40 downwards against the action of spring 42, rotate shaft 37 about axis 38 (clockwise in figure 5b) , and disengage wheel 36 from corresponding rack 26.

With reference to figure 7, line 4 is also provided with a tracer device 43 adapted to detect the presence and the correct feeding of bottles 2 within the corresponding channels 15 and comprising a cross bar 44, which extends in direction 7 and above plane P, is fixed to frame 10 downstream of station 16 in direction 5, and is arranged at a distance from plane P which approximates by excess the maximum height of a bottle 2.

Device 43 also comprises, for each channel 15, a respective tracer member 45, which extends above plane P, and is hinged to a feeding slide 46, which is mobile along cross bar 44 in direction 7 under the thrust of a drawing device (not shown) similar to drawing device 28, and is selectively locked on cross bar 44 and on drawing device (not shown) by means of corresponding locking and hooking devices (not shown) similar to locking devices 21, 34 and to hooking device 30.

The operation of conveying line 4 may be easily understood from the description above and does not require further explanations.

From the above, there follows that side walls 20 of feeding channels 15 are selectively displaced along cross bars 18, 19 in direction 7 independently of one another and by respective independent laws of motion, therefore allowing to equip conveying line 4 with channels 15 which have different widths, to stack walls 20 of channels 15 which from time to time are not used, and to considerably reduce the dimensions of line 4 in direction 7.