Parison handling assemblies and methods for handling parisons

A parison handling assembly for moving tubular, blowable parisons from a random bulk storage to the load station of a blow molding machine, said parison handling assembly comprising:

• (a) a metering apparatus having means for feeding unoriented parisons from a random bulk storage container, at a controlled rate, to a discharge location;
• (b) parison orienting means receiving parisons from said discharge of said metering apparatus, said parison orienting means grouping said parisons in a column in which the parisons are side-by-side in substantially vertical positions;
• (c) parison escapement means having pivotal release elements positioned at the discharge end of said column, means responsive to the number of parisons at the loading stations for pivoting said release elements to release said oriented parisons one at a time from said column;
• (d) parison conveyor means for receiving oriented parisons from said parison escapement means and for transporting said parisons one at a time between spaced retaining elements which retain the parisons in contact and in a single column;
• and
• (e) a feed tube through which the parisons in said column are pushed by said conveyor means to said loading station.

A method of transporting tubular, blowable parisons from a random bulk storage to loading stations of plural blow molding machines comprising the steps of:

• (a) dumping unoriented parisons at a controlled rate from a single hopper into a metering conveyor having a separate feed lane for each load station;
• (b) conveying said parisons by said metering conveyor to a parison orienter for each feed lane;
• (c) orienting said parisons from each feed lane into a separate, closely grouped column in which said parisons are side-by-side and upright;
• (d) releasing oriented parisons individually from each column as the parisons are demanded by said blow molding machine;
• (e) conveying each released parison separately and in its own lane to the open end of a feed tube, and
• (f) utilizing the motion of subsequently conveyed parisons to push parisons into and through feed tube communicating with the loading station of a blow molding machine specific to the feed lanes of said metering conveyor.

A method of transporting tubular, blowable parisons from a random bulk storage to load stations of plural blow molding machines comprising the steps of:

• (a) feeding and conveying unoriented parisons from a random bulk storage to an orienting means;
• (b) in said orienting means, groupling the parisons into a number of columns corresponding to the number of blow molding machines, the parisons in each column being side-by-side and upright;
• (c) individually and sequentially releasing said oriented parisons from each column into the path of a pusher element aligned with a feed tube specific to the column and to an individual blow molding machine;
• and
• (d) actuating the pusher element to feed individual parisons into and through its feed tube to the specific blow molding machine.

A method of transporting tubular, blowable parisons from a random bulk storage to the load station of a blow molding machine comprising the steps of:

• (a) metering unoriented parisons at a controlled rate from a random bulk storage onto a metering conveyor;
• (b) transporting said parisons by said metering conveyor to a parison orienter;
• (c) orienting said parisons into a closely grouped arrangement wherein said parisons are side-by-side and upright;
• (d) feeding oriented parisons to a holding station wherein said oriented parisons are held until demanded by said blow molding machine;
• (e) releasing said oriented parisons to a parison transporter in response to the demand for parisons at respective blow molding machines;
• and
• (f) pushing the parisons in series into a feed tube which is connected to the load station.

In a feeding system for parisons having enlarged neck portions and reduced tubular body portions and wherein the parisons are suspended by their neck portions in a column, the parisons being side-by-side and substantially upright with their body portions spaced from one another because of the abutment of the neck portions of adjacent parisons, the column being inclined downwardly toward a discharge end, so that parisons move in column toward said discharge end as each end parison is removed at the end of the column, the improvement of a release mechanism located at said discharge end of said column and comprising a release element, means supporting said release element adjacent the discharge end of the column for pivotal movement about an axis parallel to the column, reciprocable means for pivoting said element about said axis in each direction through an arc of about 90.degree., said element having a pair of abutments extending radially from said axis and substantially perpendicular to one another, said abutments being spaced along the axis at a distance slightly greater than the outside diameter of a parison body portion, and means for reciprocating said pivoting means, one of said abutments normally contacting the parison at the end of said column and the other of the abutments being out of contact with any parison but aligned with the space between the end parison and the next adjacent parison, movement of said pivoting means in one direction pivoting said element to remove the one abutment from contact with the end parison and interposing the other abutment between the end parision and the next adjacent parison, thereby releasing the end parison and remaining the remainder of the parisons in column, and movement of said pivoting means in the other direction pivoting the element back to its original position so that the one abutment contacts the now end parison.