Article trimming apparatus

An apparatus for trimming a hollow plastic article having flash and a finish for receiving a closure which comprises:

• a base,
• a plurality of stations about said base including
• a load station in fixed relation to said base,
• an unload station in fixed relation to said base and spaced generally circumferentially from said load station,
• a deflash station in fixed relation to said base and spaced generally circumferentially between said load and unload stations,
• a facing station in fixed relation to said base and spaced generally circumferentially between said deflash and unload stations,
• a turret associated with said base and rotatable about an axis for intermittent movement with respect to aid base,
• means for intermittently rotating sad turret,
• a plurality of head mounts carried by said turret in circumferentially spaced relation for intermittent rotation with respect to said base,
• at least one vacuum head for holding an article carried by each of said head mounts, each of said head mounts being movable and constructed and arranged to move each of the heads carried thereby such that the axis of an article engaged by such heads can be oriented generally parallel to, inclined to, or generally perpendicular to the axis of rotation of said turret, and
• a head mount actuator means associated with each head mount and constructed and arranged to move all head mounts to the same orientation in each given station where the orientation differs for at least one station from the orientation of another station.

An apparatus for trimming a hollow plastic article having flash and a finish for receiving a closure which comprises:

• a base,
• a plurality of stations about said base including
• a load station associated with said base,
• an unload station circumferentially spaced from said load station,
• a turret rotatably mounted with respect to said base,
• a loader apparatus at said load station constructed and arranged to present articles for pickup by vacuum heads,
• a plurality of vacuum heads for picking up the articles, said vacuum heads being carried by said turret in circumferentially spaced relation for intermittent rotation with respect to said base, each vacuum head being constructed and arranged to pickup and engage an article in said load station,
• a deflash station associated with said base, circumferentially spaced between said load and unload stations, and having a deflasher constructed and arranged to remove flash from an article while such article is in said deflash station,
• a facing station associated with said base, circumferentially spaced between said load and unload stations, and having a facer constructed and arranged to remove material from a finish of an article to form an opening for receiving a closure while such article is in said facing station,
• a variable speed drive, a turret actuator mechanism operably connected to said variable speed drive and constructed and arranged to intermittently rotate said turret to advance a vacuum head successively through each of said stations, a loader actuator mechanism operably connected to said variable speed drive and constructed and arranged to actuate said loader apparatus to pickup and transfer an article to a vacuum head in said load station, a deflasher actuator mechanism operatively associated with said variable speed drive and constructed and arranged to actuate said deflasher to remove flash from an article while in said deflash station, and a facer actuator mechanism operably connected to said variable speed drive and constructed and arranged to actuate said facer to remove material from a finish of an article while in said facing station, whereby the cycle time for said apparatus to trim an article can be varied and controlled by adjusting said variable speed drive thereby simultaneously adjusting the speed of intermittent rotation of said turret and the speed of actuation of said loader.