METHOD AND EQUIPMENT FOR SEALING THE CAP OF BOTTLES

• US 3,861,118 A
• Filed: 11/28/1973
• Issued: 01/21/1975
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kikuo Muto
• Original Assignee: Kikuo Muto
• Inventors: Muto, Kikuo
• Primary Examiner(s): McGehee, Travis S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Culver, Horace M.
• Application Number:
  US05/419,488
• Time in Patent Office: 419 Days
• Field of Search: 53/291,292,295,129,167,184,329
• US Class Current: 53/167
• CPC Class Codes: B67B 5/036 the covers being heat-shrinkable

Abstract

A method and apparatus for cap-sealing the necks of bottles. Bottles are supplied intermittently one by one to a bottle receiver at the end of an arm bar, and the arm bar is intermittently turned through a certain angle to carry the bottle in the bottle receiver onto a turntable positioned in the path of the turning bottle receiver. A bonding agent is uniformly applied to the circumference of the neck of the turning bottle by a bonding agent applying mechanism located above the turntable, the operation of said bonding agent applying mechanism being synchronous with the operation of a top plate feeding mechanism that automatically feeds a dust-excluding top plate onto the top of the neck of the bottle. The bottle is carried to a cap-sealing material feeding mechanism by a next intermittent motion of the arm bar. A suction opening mechanism which operates synchronously with the operation of the cap-sealing material feeding mechanism removes from a material housing a flat tubular cap-sealing material made of heat-contracting synthetic resin, and opens it to an almost cylindrical shape as it is taken out of the housing, and it puts the cylindrically opened tubular material onto the neck of the bottle. The bottle is placed, by the next intermittent motion of said arm bar, onto a conveyor running through a heating furnace in which said tubular material is thermally contracted. A twisting mechanism tightly adheres the bonding-agent-containing part of the cap-sealing material under pressure and by a twisting motion.

Claims

1. An apparatus for cap-sealing the necks of bottles, comprising:

a bottle moving device for moving and guiding bottles to be capsealed;

a bottle sliding surface over which the bottles to be moved and guided by said bottle moving device can slide and operatively positioned therefor;

a bonding agent applying device for applying bonding agent to the necks of the bottles, and a top plate placing device for placing top plates one by one onto the tops of the bottles, said bonding agent applying device and said top plate placing device being located at a first position along said bottle sliding surface;

a cap-sealing material feeding device positioned at a second position along said bottle sliding surface for furnishing to and covering, one by one, the necks of the bottles, to which bonding agent has been applied and onto which the top plate has been placed, a flattened tubular cap-sealing material made of heat-contracting synthetic resin;

a conveyor at the end of said bottle sliding surface;

a furnace located at a first position along said conveyor for thermally contracting the cap-sealing material covering the neck of the bottles; and

a twisting device located at a second position along said conveyor for twisting and rolling under pressure the necks of the bottles cap-sealed by heat contraction.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a device for aligning the label of the body of the bottle with the letter-bearing surface of the cap seal, said device being a photoelectric mechanism installed beside said bonding agent applying device.

3. An apparatus for cap-sealing the necks of bottles comprising, in combination:

carrying means for supporting The bottles in their movement through the apparatus;

transferring means for individually receiving and transferring said bottles, said transferring means comprising an arm bar having a bottle receiver at one end thereof, said arm bar being operatively positioned above said carrying means and intermittently turnable through successive determined angles to receive and transfer bottles along said carrying means;

application means for uniformly applying a bonding agent to the circumference of the necks of the bottles and for applying a top plate to the tops of the bottles, said application means positioned at the end of the first successive turn of the transferring means and comprised of a turntable along said carrying means positioned so as to receive bottles delivered by said transfer means, a bonding agent applying mechanism located above said turntable, a top-plate feeding mechanism for automatically feeding a dust preventing top plate onto the top of the necks of the bottles, also located above the turntable, said bonding agent applying mechanism and said top plate feeding mechanism operating is synchronized motions;

feeding means positioned at the end of the second successive turn of the transferring means for taking out of a cap-sealing material housing-unit flat tubular cap-sealing material made of heat contracting synthetic resin, said feeding means comprised of a lifting mechanism along and level with said carrying means for raising said bottles, and a suction opening mechanism above said lifting mechanism for opening said flat tubular material to an almost cylindrical shape while being removed from said housing unit and for holding said opened tubular material while said opened tubular material is fitted onto the bottles raised to the suction opening mechanism by the lifting mechanism;

conveyor means located at the third successive turn of the transferring means and at the end of said carrying means, said conveyor means comprised of a conveyor for further moving said bottles;

heating means positioned at a first position along said conveyor means for thermally contracting said cylindrical tubular material about the necks of said bottles, said heating means comprised of a furnace with said conveyor means running therethrough; and

adhering means located at a second position along said conveyor means and spaced from said heating means for tightly adhering the bonding agent to the cap-sealing material, said adhering means comprised of a twisting mechanism for engaging said bottles coming from said heating means on said conveyor means wherein the bottles and the cap-sealing material are twisted and adherence of the cap-sealing material to the bonding agent surrounding the neck of the bottle occurs under pressure with a twisting motion.