Orienting and feeding apparatus for manufacturing line

In apparatus for orienting and feeding blow molded preforms which are elongated generally cylindrical plastic objects, one end of which is a threaded neck portion for the ultimate blow molded container, and the other end of which extends from the opposed end of the cylindrical object as a narrower and heavier tubular portion which during the blow molding operation will be softened and enlarged into the ultimate container, the preform further including an encircling handling disc between the said threaded neck portion and tubular portion which has a larger diameter than the remaining portions of the perform, the said disc serving to facilitate handling of the preforms, said apparatus including:

• (a) first and second continuous conveying belts having input and output ends for cooperatively conveying said objects toward a processing line;
• (b) means for moving said belts in a common direction;
• (c) said belts being mounted so that the respective conveying surfaces move in a common parallel direction;
• the lateral facing edges of said belts being spaced from one another to define a uniform gap therebetween of a dimension greater than the transverse diameter of said tubular portion and less than the transverse diameter of said enlarged disc portion of said preform s;
• (d) said conveying surfaces residing and moving in respective planes which are upwardly sloped away from said gap, said surfaces thereby defining a zone converging downwardly in the direction of said gap;
• (e) object input means for depositing said preforms at said input end of said moving belts;
• (f) means for moving said belts at different respective speeds, whereby the elongated preforms from said input end are rotated by contact with the differentially speeding belts, permitting the heavier tubular portion to descend in said converging zone and slip into said gap and point vertically downward while the preform is supported at the gap and conveyed by the enlarged disc portion riding on the edges of the moving belts which border the said gap;
• (g) means at the output ends of said belts for deflecting out of the line any preforms which are not properly oriented and seated in the said gap;
• (h) preform output means at said output end of said belts for receiving the oriented preforms and directing them toward said processing line;
• and
• (i) means for precluding or minimizing the said preforms resisting deflection at means (g) due to frictional lock between the said disc portion of the preform and an adjacent lateral edge of a said opposed belt, comprising:
• the lateral edge of the said belt abounding the said gap in the direction of deflection being formed to diverge upwardly away from the belt gap;
• THE IMPROVEMENT which enables an increase in the feed rate of preforms through the said apparatus while not substantially increasing the production rate and consequent rejection rate of improperly seated performs at means (g) due to the increased feed rate of said preforms generating interlocked assemblages among the deposited performs proceeding from means (e);
• comprising:
• (j) means for agitating the deposited preforms proceeding from means (e), said means acting on the said assemblages of preforms at one or more points which are closer to said input end than said output end of said conveying belts, to disperse the interlocked assemblages of said preforms into individual preforms for acting upon by the remaining means (f) through (i) of said apparatus.