US 5,018,776 AGranted

Bottle gripping device

OwnerLars E. Trygginventor

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Abstract

A gripping device intended particularly for bottles or like objects, including a gripping block (6) which incorporates a plurality of through-passing cylindrical channels (7), and a gripping element arranged in each of the channels. Each gripping element includes a support sleeve (8) having mounted thereon a substantially cylindrical muff (9) made of an elastic material. By delivering pressurized air to the space located between the muff (9) and the support sleeve (8), the muff can be deformed so as to grip around the neck of a bottle. The gripping block (6) is connected in a readily removable manner to a mounting block (5) carried by a holding device (1), and the mounting block is so constructed that when the gripping block is connected to the mounting block the mounting block will hold the gripping elements in place in the gripping block. The arrangement enables the gripping elements to be quickly reached for exchange purposes when removing the gripping block (6) from the mounting block (5).

Claims11

Dependent claims

A gripping device, particularly intended for bottles or like objects, comprising:

(a) a holding device (1),
(b) a mounting block (5) carried by the holding device,
(c) at least one gripping block (6) defining a plurality of through-passing cylindrical channels (7),
(d) a plurality of gripping elements individually disposed in the channels, each gripping element comprising a support sleeve (8), and a substantially cylindrical muff (9) of elastic material mounted on the sleeve, the gripping elements being inserted in the channels from an upwardly facing surface of the gripping block,
(e) air passage means (18) defined in the gripping block for supplying pressurized air to a space located between each muff and an associated support sleeve to deform each muff, and
(f) non-threaded means for readily detachably mounting the gripping block to the mounting block with said upwardly facing surface of the gripping block disposed closely proximate a downwardly facing surface of the mounting block such that the mounting block securely retains the gripping elements in their respective channels in the gripping block, and such that the gripping block is readily and easily removable from the mounting block to enable access to and replacement of worn or damaged gripping elements.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.