Can detection and switch mechanism for can filling apparatus

#This invention relates generally to vacuum syrupers or filling machines of the general type shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,543,788 and 3,990,487 issued to Malcolm W. Loveland or in Battinich, U.S. Pat. No. 2,903,023. Those prior art machines have a plurality of filler valves such as that illustrated in FIG. 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,487 and in co-pending application Ser. No. 492,407 for High speed vacuum syruper.

#One object of the present invention is to provide improved means for initiating or de-activating the valving sequence for a filling valve of the type illustrated in the foregoing U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,487 and co-pending application at high bowl speeds for filling in the order of 600 cans per minute.

#The high speed vacuum syruper of the co-pending application includes a bowl containing filling syrup or other fluid which is rotatable upon a stationary frame. The bowl has a plurality of filling valves located around its bottom periphery and the machine includes means for moving an empty container into engagement with each filling valve, conveying it around with the filler valve during the filling operation and then removing it from the valve after filling for subsequent closure.

#Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following description of a preferred embodiment in connection with the accompanying drawings.

#FIG. 1 illustrates in partial vertical section a typical filler valve in closed position with an empty can raised into filling engagement;

#FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the valve mechanism of FIG. 1;

#FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate a filling valve of the general type shown, for example, in Loveland U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,487. Comparable components in these drawings are numbered according to the numbering in that patent. The illustrated machine includes a rotatable filler bowl 12 which is rotatably mounted and driven upon a stationary frame. The bowl has upwardly extending side walls 13, a bottom 14 and a top rim 15. Around the bottom periphery are a series of openings 16 in which a plurality of filler valves 17 mount. Each filler valve 17 includes a displacement disc 18, a resilient seal ring 22, a splash plate 25 and a spacing washer 23, all mounted upon a ported valve seat 24 that is secured as by the illustrated cap-screws into the bowl bottom 14 to seal off its corresponding opening 16.

#A ported valve disc 26 is pivotable upon the valve seat 24 at its lower end and carries valve stem 27 that extends upwardly out of the bowl. The valve stem 27 at its upper end oscillates in journal bearing means 28 fastened as by the illustrated cap-screws to the bowl top rim 15. The upper free end 29 of the valve stem 27 carries a cam follower crank 30 upon which a control cam follower 31 and a switching cam follower 32 are rotatably pinned. These cam followers 31 and 32 track the stationary cam 50 shown and described in connection with FIGS. 4-15.

#Vacuum from a vacuum source, not shown, communicates through pipe 34 to a vacuum shoe 36 sliding on perforated plate 35 mounted on the rotatable bowl. The vacuum source draws a vacuum through separate conduit 37 connecting perforated plate 35 and port 38 in each valve seat 24. A fill port 46 in the valve seat 24 communicates with the interior of the filling bowl 12. In the manner which is generally described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,487, control of filling port 46 in the valve seat 24 is by the bottom face of valve disc 26 and its filling port 45 on the disc periphery. Control of the vacuum port 38, which also acts as an atmospheric vent, also is by the bottom face of the valve disc 26 and a passage 39 cut in the bottom which selectively communicates valve seat port 38 with fill port 46 at the vacuuming and vent positions or closes port 38 altogether at the valve closed and fill positions in response to control cam follower 31 and the manipulating cam 50.