Workpiece steady for a decorating machine
First Claim
1. The combination of:
- a workpiece steady in the flow path of a workpiece delivery conveyor to handle workpieces carried by a decorator conveyor of a decorating machine;
a plurality of workpiece stabilizers to drivingly support workpieces during a change to a workpiece speed of travel along said workpiece delivery conveyor, each of the workpiece stabilizers including a cam follower and stabilizer guides; and
at least one workpiece drive cam having a cam track receiving said cam followers for changing the speed of travel by workpieces between an entry speed and a discharge speed, one such speed corresponds to and the other speed differs from the conveyance speeds by said workpiece delivery conveyor, a space between the consecutively advancing workpieces along the workpiece drive cam ever changing by the change to the speed of travel by the consecutively advancing workpiece stabilizers.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A reduction to the traveling motion of bottles along a delivery conveyor in an intermittent motion decorating machine is provided by one of a pair of workpiece feed cams rotatably supported in a side-by-side relation to rotate about spaced horizontal axes lying in a common horizontal plane. The workpiece feed cams have feed cam tracks for receiving cam followers of each of plurality of vertical bottle carriers. One of the feed cam tracks reduces the speed of the bottle carriers from a relatively high entry speed corresponding to the through put speed in the decorating machine to the speed of the deliver conveyor for more densely populating the delivery conveyor with workpieces. Carrier transfer members at each of opposite ends of the workpiece feed cams transfer the bottle carriers from one to the other of the workpiece feed cams. A drive rotates the workpiece feed cams, carrier return cams and carrier transfer members. The decorating machine is provided with a registration station preceding spaced apart decorating stations. The registration station includes a drive to reduce the clamping pressure by chucks on a workpiece while establishing a predetermined orientation of each workpiece relative to the decorating stations.
12 Citations
24 Claims
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1. The combination of:
- a workpiece steady in the flow path of a workpiece delivery conveyor to handle workpieces carried by a decorator conveyor of a decorating machine;
a plurality of workpiece stabilizers to drivingly support workpieces during a change to a workpiece speed of travel along said workpiece delivery conveyor, each of the workpiece stabilizers including a cam follower and stabilizer guides; and
at least one workpiece drive cam having a cam track receiving said cam followers for changing the speed of travel by workpieces between an entry speed and a discharge speed, one such speed corresponds to and the other speed differs from the conveyance speeds by said workpiece delivery conveyor, a space between the consecutively advancing workpieces along the workpiece drive cam ever changing by the change to the speed of travel by the consecutively advancing workpiece stabilizers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
- a workpiece steady in the flow path of a workpiece delivery conveyor to handle workpieces carried by a decorator conveyor of a decorating machine;
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5. A bottle steady for workpieces in a decorating machine, said bottle steady including the combination of:
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a workpiece conveyor for a decorator;
a plurality of independent workpiece stabilizers to support workpieces during a change to speed of travel relative to a conveyance speed by said conveyor, each of said workpiece stabilizers including a cam follower and workpiece stabilizer guides;
at least one workpiece drive cam having a cam track receiving cam followers of said a plurality of independent workpiece stabilizers for changing the speed of travel by workpieces supported by said plurality of independent workpiece stabilizers between entry and discharge speeds one of which corresponds to and the other differs from said conveyance speed by said workpiece conveyor, space between the consecutively advancing workpieces along said workpiece drive cam every changing by the change to the speed of travel by the consecutively advancing workpieces;
a drive to rotate said workpiece drive cam; and
conveyance guides engaged with said workpiece stabilizer guides for maintaining said cam follower of each of said independent workpiece stabilizers drivingly engaged with said cam track. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. The Apparatus for decorating workpieces, said apparatus including the combination of:
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a decorator having horizontal workpiece carriers for transporting workpieces to and from at least one decorating station;
feed and discharge conveyors for supplying workpieces to said decorator;
a plurality of independent workpiece stabilizers to support workpieces during a change to a speed of travel relative to a conveyance speed by at least one of said feed and discharge conveyors, each of said workpiece stabilizers including a cam follower and workpiece stabilizer guides;
at least one workpiece drive cam having a cam track receiving cam followers of said a plurality of independent workpiece stabilizers for changing the speed of travel by workpieces supported by said plurality of independent workpiece stabilizers between entry and discharge speeds one of which corresponds to and the other differs from said conveyance speed by at least one of said feed and discharge conveyors, space between the consecutively advancing workpieces along said workpiece drive cam ever changing by the change to the speed of travel by the consecutively advancing workpieces;
a drive to rotate said workpiece drive cam; and
conveyance guides engaged with said workpiece stabilizer guides for maintaining said cam follower of each of said independent workpiece stabilizers drivingly engaged with said cam track.
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16. An apparatus to establish a predetermined orientation of a surface of a workpiece to receive decoration relative to printing stations of an intermittent decorating machine, said intermittent decorating machine including a plurality of horizontally spaced apart decorating stations preceded by a registration station;
- a workpiece carrier having chucks to independently rotatably support each workpiece while residing at each of said stations; and
, a workpiece feed cam for advancing said workpiece carrier along said stations, said workpiece feed cam including a continuous motion cam track with a dwell period at each of said stations for presenting a workpiece on said workpiece carrier to register the orientation of the workpiece at said registration station and apply decoration to the workpiece at each of said horizontally spaced apart decorating stations. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
- a workpiece carrier having chucks to independently rotatably support each workpiece while residing at each of said stations; and
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20. A method to stabilize the movement of a workpiece in the flow path of a conveyor for workpieces in a decorating machine, said method including the steps of:
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depositing a workpiece having an elongated central axis on a moving conveyor with the elongated central axis extending vertically;
engaging the workpiece at vertically spaced sites; and
driving the workpiece along said conveyor to change the speed of travel between entry and discharge speeds one of which corresponds to and the other differs from the conveyance speed by said conveyor. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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23. A method to establish a predetermined orientation of a surface of a workpiece to receive decoration relative to printing stations of an intermittent decorating machine, said method including the steps of providing an intermittent decorating machine having a plurality of horizontally spaced apart decorating stations preceded by a registration station;
- rotatably supporting each of a plurality of workpieces to independently rotate about elongated central axis of the workpieces while residing at each of said stations; and
, using a workpiece feed cam for advancing said workpieces along said stations, said workpiece feed cam including a continuous motion cam track with a dwell period at each of said stations for presenting a workpiece to register the orientation of the workpiece at said registration station and apply decoration to the workpieces at each of said horizontally spaced apart decorating stations. - View Dependent Claims (24)
- rotatably supporting each of a plurality of workpieces to independently rotate about elongated central axis of the workpieces while residing at each of said stations; and
Specification