Method for the manufacture of ampules from glass tubes

Abstract

A method for the manufacture of containers from glass tubes, particularly ampules, in which container blanks coming from a production machine are delivered intermittently and successively to processing stations arranged along a conveying route and reshaped and processed therein in successive operations. Each container blank is individually grasped immediately after its delivery from the production machine and is held rotatably about its lengthwise axis during processing in the processing stations. The container blanks may be transferred after being grasped to a position pointing their open ends downward, possibly in a vertical direction. The arrangement may provide for the stepwise conveyance of the container blanks, through clamping devices for holding a container blank on one end, with the blanks moving along the processing stations. These clamping units may be chucks with one or more leaf springs. The clamping units may pivot about axes perpendicular to their rotation axes from a horizontal to a vertical position of the container blanks. The clamping units are guided along a closed track, possibly circular, with the processing stations along the track.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.