Method and apparatus for delabeling
AssigneeMonsanto Company
InventorWilliam D. Wolf
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Mechanical delabeling apparatus includes a slotted tubular feed conduit containing drive belts, an open delabeling zone at the end of the conduit circumscribed by adjacent, circularly arranged members comprising an abrading wheel, an article turning wheel and a yieldably biased set of spherical rollers. The dry process includes sequentially driving labeled bottles into the delabeling zone, rotating them about their lengthwise axes prior to and during contact with the abrading wheel while yieldably transversely supporting them in such zone and air conveying labels and adhesive materials from the zone as removed from the bottles.
Claims18
Delabeling apparatus comprising:
- A. a pair of driven endless belts defining a feed passage between them;
- and
- B. circularly arranged means circumscribing a delabeling zone open to said passage including:
- a. a rotatably driven abrading member;
- b. a rotatably driven turning member adapted to supportively cooperate with a surface of the article being delabeled;
- and
- c. force-applying means.
A dry process for delabeling axially symmetrical, lightweight plastic containers comprising the steps of:
- A. sequentially inserting said containers lengthwise to a tubular feed passage;
- B. driving the containers in the direction of their longitudinal axes along the feed passage toward a delabeling zone;
- C. rotating the containers about their axes after reaching said zone;
- D. abrading labels from the containers in the delabeling zone during said rotation;
- E. supporting the containers in a direction substantially perpendicular to their axes during said abrading and rotating;
- and
- F. air conveying the removal labels from said delabeling zone as released from the containers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.