Plant for bottling containers with liquids and method for operating said plant

A plant for bottling containers with liquids, said plant comprising:

• a plurality of operating machines one after the other along a bottling line;
• a first transport system adapted to make containers move along said bottling line from an inlet section of the plant to an outlet section of the plant through said plurality of machines;
• a storage apparatus for storing a plurality of containers, wherein the storage apparatus is associated with a section of said bottling line, wherein the storage apparatus is interposed at least between an upstream machine and a downstream machine of said plurality of machines, and wherein the storage apparatus comprises:
• a storage unit for storing containers;
• a second transport system, which is susceptible of extracting said containers from said first transport system of said bottling line in order to feed said storage unit;
• a third transport system, which is susceptible of picking up the containers stored on said storage unit in order to feed said first transport system of said bottling line;
• wherein said first transport system comprises an upstream conveyor actuated by a first motor system at a first operative speed, and a downstream conveyor, actuated by a second motor system at a second operative speed;
• wherein a release end of said upstream conveyor is side-by-side an inlet end of said downstream conveyor in order to transfer the containers from said upstream conveyor to said downstream conveyor;
• wherein the release end of said upstream conveyor is adjacent to the inlet end of said downstream conveyor, wherein said downstream conveyor extends as a continuation of said upstream conveyor;
• wherein said bottling plant comprises a logic control unit connected to the first and second motor systems of the respective upstream conveyor and downstream conveyor of said first transport system, to said second transport system and to said third transport system;
• wherein said logic control unit is programmed in accordance with at least the following operative modes;
• a by-pass mode, in which said logic control unit commands said first motor system and said second motor system with equivalent first and second operative speeds and in which the containers transit from the release end of the upstream conveyor to the inlet end of the downstream conveyor in order to continue along said bottling line;
• wherein, when said logic control unit is configured to operate according to said by-pass mode, the containers transit directly from said upstream conveyor to said downstream conveyor;
• a storage mode, in which said logic control unit commands said first motor system and said second motor system respectively with said first operative speed greater than said second operative speed and in which said logic control unit commands said second transport system to extract the containers from said first transport system in order to feed said storage unit;
• a recovery mode, in which said logic control unit commands said first motor system and said second motor system respectively with said first operative speed lower than said second operative speed, and in which said logic control unit commands said third transport system to pick up the containers stored on said storage unit in order to feed said downstream conveyor.