Conveyor system for handling non-rigid containers
OwnerDaniel J. Rowaninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A conveyor system for handling containers, particularly non-rigid bottles or jars, wherein the containers are gripped firmly but resiliently, to minimize deformation, and are conveyed, without friction or danger of marring, to a delivery zone where they can be delivered individually or in groups. The container gripping means includes holding jaws carried by complementary endless belts or chains, and inflatable pressure adjusting air bags for urging the holding jaws into engagement with the containers, holding them precisely spaced for subsequent operations and releasing them accurately on signal.
Claims18
A conveyor system for handling containers, comprising a pair of endless belts carried by rollers and arranged to have straight parallel conveying runs, said belts being spaced by a distance commensurate with the diameter of the containers to be conveyed, each belt being provided on its outer surface with a pair of spaced holding jaws for each container, means for synchronously driving said belts, and means including at least one air bag and a source of air under pressure for applying a plurality of adjustable pressures to at least one belt over a plurality of portions of its conveying run to urge said at least one belt toward the other belt in corresponding portions of its conveying run to hold each container without bottom support by applying different pressures to the containers through said holding jaws in each of said plurality of portions of the conveying run of said at least one belt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.