Continuous plug gauger for container openings

In an apparatus for gauging bottles, the combination of means for conveying a plurality of bottles to be gauged along a straight line, said conveying means including a feed worm, endless chain means disposed above said bottle conveying means straight line and having a first run spaced above said conveying means straight line and a second run spaced vertically above said first run, a plurality of gauging devices mounted upon said chain means and spaced thereon corresponding to the spacing between said bottles as the bottles are moving along said feed worms in said conveying means, each gauging device having a go-no go gauge reciprocally mounted thereon and freely movable axially of said device between an extended gauging position and a retracted position, means for sensing when any gauge indicates no go and for rejecting any bottle which is sensed as having a no go condition, means for retracting each of said gauges at the end of said first run, said gauges each remaining in their retracted positions through said second run and moving into their extended positions as each gauge is moved to the beginning of said first run, said conveying means including a guide rail extending along parallel to but horizontally spaced from said feed worm for conveying the bottles between said feed worm and said guide, said feed worm having an entry end for receiving the bottles, and self-contained anti-shock means horizontally spaced from the entry end of said feed worm and positioned ahead of said guide rail for admitting the bottles between said entry end of the feed worm and said anti-shock means, said anti-shock means including a housing, multiple layers of plastic material movably held by said housing with exposed edges extending from the housing perpendicularly toward the entry end of the feed worm, and sponge-like material in said housing engaging the opposite edges of said layers from said exposed edges.