Machine for gripping and sizing containers formed from flexible material
AssigneeMcKenna Equipment Company, Inc.
InventorDavid S. Knudsen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A machine for bringing the flexible upright walls of paperboard containers into a predetermined configuration, so that fitment rings may be applied to the upper ends of those containers, includes a pair of captivator chains having parallel inner passes and a main conveyor located generally between the two inner passes. The containers are released onto the main conveyor at equal intervals, whereupon opposed captivator blocks on the two chains fit snugly around the containers and cause them to assume the desired configuration. This enables fitment rings to be installed over the upper margins of the sidewalls or some other operation to be performed on the containers.
Claims21
A machine for gripping a container having a flexible peripheral wall so as to maintain the peripheral wall in a predetermined configuration, said machine comprising:
- a base having a conveying path along it, with the conveying path having a feed end and a discharge end;
- a first endless conveying device on the base and having an inner pass located along one side of the conveying path and an outer pass located away from the conveying path;
- a second endless conveying device on the base and having an inner pass that is located along the other side of the conveying path and an outer pass located away from the conveying path;
- drive means for moving the endless devices at substantially the same velocity and such that the inner passes travel toward the discharge end of the path;
- and first and second captivator blocks on the first and second endless devices respectively, with each captivator block including a plurality of individual segments, one of which is a leading segment and another of which is a trailing segment, the captivator blocks and the endless devices being configured such that each captivator block approaches the inner pass of its endless device in an open condition and then moves into a closed condition as the block moves further into the inner pass, with corresponding first and second blocks merging as the blocks move into their closed positions, the individual segments of corresponding first and second blocks being spread apart when the blocks are in the open condition to enable the peripheral wall of a container to be loosely received between the blocks, and the individual segments being closer together when the blocks are in their closed condition to produce a cavity in which the flexible peripheral wall of the container will snugly fit, the leading segments for corresponding first and second blocks being located substantially against each other and the corresponding trailing segments also being located substantially against each other when the blocks are closed along the inner passes so that the cavity formed by corresponding first and second blocks is substantially continuous around the container, whereby the corresponding first and second blocks maintain the flexible peripheral wall of the container in a predetermined configuration.
A machine for installing a relatively rigid end structure such as a fitment ring on the open end of a container having flexible side walls which lead up to the open end, said machine comprising:
- a base;
- a main conveyor along the base for supporting a succession of containers in an upright position;
- front and rear sprockets on each side of the main conveyor;
- a captivator chain around each set of front and rear sprockets, each chain having an inner pass that passes along the main conveyor with the inner passes of the two chains having sections that are parallel;
- drive means for moving the main conveyor and for rotating at least one of the sprockets of each set such that the main conveyor and the two captivator chains move at substantially the same velocity and the inner passes of the chains travel in the same direction as the main conveyor;
- and captivator blocks on the captivator chains and being positioned such that corresponding blocks on each chain come around their respective rear sprockets together and thereafter close upon each other to produce a cavity capable of snugly receiving a single container, each captivator block including a plurality of individual segments which enable the blocks to open up as they come around the rear sprockets and to thereafter close down as they move away from the rear sprockets and into the parallel sections of the inner passes, whereby a container released onto the main conveyor as the corresponding captivator blocks come around the rear sprockets for their respective chains will at first be loosely gripped by the corresponding captivator blocks and will then be tightly gripped;
- and means for applying the rigid end structure to the upper ends of the containers as they are tightly gripped along the inner passes of the captivator chains.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.