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.
Claims11
An apparatus for placing articles in a package comprising:
- a conveyor for conveying a series of articles to a packaging station;
- first and second shuttles disposed adjacent the conveyor at the packaging station, each shuttle being movable reversibly back and forth in opposite directions between a loading position and an unloading position in the packaging station, each shuttle having a number of pockets for receiving a corresponding number of articles from the conveyor at the loading position and transferring the articles to the unloading position;
- a shuttle loader at the loading position configured to transfer the articles from the series on the conveyor to the pockets of the first and second shuttles;
- a package table adjacent the unloading position of the shuttles for supporting a package for receiving the articles;
- a shuttle unloader at the unloading position of the shuttles configured to transfer the articles from the pockets of the shuttles to the package on the table;
- and
- a controlled drive mechanism connected with the first and second shuttles to move the shuttles between the loading and unloading positions in alternating fashion, whereby one shuttle can be loaded with articles at the loading position while the other shuttle is unloaded at the unloading position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.