Glass manufacturing apparatus and method
AssigneeGerresheimer Glass Inc.
InventorDean Scardino
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method for manufacturing glass containers handles the containers individually after a hot forming process and annealing to prevent glass-to-glass contact. By handling the containers individually and preventing glass-to-glass contact damage to the containers in the form of checks and scratches is avoided. To prevent contact of the containers and damage arising from the contact, the equipment including conveyors, pushers, starwheels, shuttles, and transfer heads that move the glass containers through the apparatus maintains the glass containers in uniform spaced relationship at each stage of container processing until the containers are packaged.
Claims9
An apparatus for manufacturing glass containers comprising:
- a first conveyor that carries multiple rows of glass containers that are not in uniform spaced relationship,
- a second conveyor that carries a sequence of the glass containers in uniform spaced relationship for subsequent processing;
- a deadplate interposed between the first conveyor and the second conveyor;
- a transfer head mounted above the dead plate and the first conveyor and movable between the dead plate and the first conveyor for transferring glass containers from the first conveyor where the glass containers are not in uniform spaced relationship to the deadplate and depositing the containers on the deadplate, the transfer head having uniformly spaced pockets for receiving glass containers in a row on the first conveyor and positioning the containers of the row on the deadplate in uniform spaced relationship, the uniformly spaced pockets of the transfer head being generally V-shaped pockets;
- and
- a pusher bar movably mounted over the deadplate for pushing the glass containers deposited on the deadplate by the transfer head onto the second conveyor in uniform spaced relationship, the pusher bar having generally V-shaped pockets that are uniformly spaced to correspond to the pockets of the transfer head for receiving the glass containers and maintaining the uniform spaced relationship of the glass containers when the containers are pushed onto the second conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.