Spraying apparatus

#The present invention relates in general to apparatus, and any method performed by that apparatus, for spraying or otherwise handling articles of manufacture. More specifically, the invention relates to apparatus for spray painting cans and can tops.

#It has become highly efficacious for articles such as cans and can tops to be spray painted prior to being transported into an oven where the painted cans are baked to dry or set the paint sprayed on them. Systems have been devised for such transport, the cans being moved by a pin chain conveyor, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,532 discloses a system in which cans with an open end are moved by can carriers on which the cans have been placed open-end-down. The carriers and their surmounted cans are then carried by a conveyor belt and each carrier, which supports four invented cans, is sequentially moved to a spraying station where the carrier is rotated to bring each of the cans into the path of the spray gun. Thereafter the carriers are moved to an oven where the cans are baked to dry the paint or varnish or other material that has been sprayed on them.

#Several difficulties have arisen with regard to the system described herein as prior art. One of the problems exists because the inverted can is in direct contact with the can carrier. With this configuration, the rim of the can or article of manufacture is not subject to being contacted by sprayed material. Thus, after the cans emerge from the oven, their rims will not have been sprayed, and the painting must either be completed by hand or some other means must be devised so that the can or can top will not exhibit a slovenly appearance at its rim, where the absence of paint is likely to be noticed.

#Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1 thereof the apparatus embodying my invention comprises a conveyor, indicated generally by the reference numeral 10, which moves in the direction of the arrows 11 through an enclosure 12. Within enclosure 12 is a spraying station, indicated generally at 13, at which articles of manufacture that are to be painted or otherwise treated are subjected to liquid in the form of a spray. Those articles, identified by reference numeral 14, are mounted on carriers 18 transported by conveyor 10 into the enclosure 12 through an entrance 15 in the enclosure, and exit the enclosure through a complementary opening 16 at the far end of the enclosure 12. At the spray station 13 the articles 14 are rotated by spinning means, indicated as a whole by numeral 17, 50 that paint can be evenly applied to the entirety of the outer surface of the article.

#The enclosure 10, which serves the purpose of preventing errant spray from coating unwanted parts of the apparatus, is best illustrated in FIG. 1. It will there be seen that the enclosure 12 consists of a top wall 20, opposed end walls 21 and 22, a back wall 23, front wall 26, and a bottom wall 24. It is a feature of my invention that bottom wall 24 is provided with an elongated slot 25 which, in the preferred embodiment, extends for the entirety of the bottom wall and between the end walls 21 and 22 of the enclosure.

#The purpose of slot 25 in bottom wall 24 is to cooperate with and allow the articles of manufacture 14, as they are mounted on their carriers 18, to pass through the enclosure 12. Thus, the structure of the carriers for the articles 14 is designed for such cooperation. One embodiment of such carriers is seen in FIGS. 4 and 5. There the carrier 18 is formed with a pedestal 28, shown positioned on conveyor 10. Formed integral with pedestal 28 and extending upwardly therefrom is a stem or shaft 29 surmounted by an adapter 30. Of course, while these portions of the carrier 27 are illustrated as being formed in one piece, it will be apparent that they can be individual elements capable of being separated and replaced, if necessary, with elements of different sizes and shapes.