Apparatus and method for high speed assembly of bottles into pack carriers

Apparatus for the high speed assembly of capped bottles, while filled with a composition, into pack carriers therefor wherein the bottles to be assembled are of substantially the same size and shape and have a substantially cylindrical no--neck body or a cylindrical neck portion and with a closure with a rim that is larger in diameter than the no-neck body or the neck portion, and the pack carriers have a longitudinal central section from which extends a plurality of back to back aligned pairs of laterally opening clips or pockets into which the bodies or necks of the bottles are adapted to be resiliently inserted sideways and resiliently held, the apparatus comprising:

• (a) an enclosed zone with an open upstream end and an open downstream end, lateral walls, an upper hold-down guide member and an upper substantially level slidable surface extending between the ends;
• (b) two spaced apart application starwheels at each side of the downstream end of the enclosed zone, each with a plurality of coaxial, layered star-shaped elements on a common rotatable shaft with arms and pockets between the arms and each with associated curved guide means to retain bottles in the pockets thereof along a circumferential arc on the upstream side of each application starwheel;
• (c) power means for controllably and coordinately rotating the two application starwheels simultaneously;
• (d) means for feeding a consecutive single file series of pack carriers across the upper slidable surface of the enclosed zone and between the two application starwheels in the longitudinal direction of the pack carriers and at a level just below the uppermost arms of the star-shaped elements, the two application starwheels being sufficiently close together that the deepest parts of the pockets between the arms of the star-shaped elements are substantially a bottle no-neck body or neck diameter width from the deepest parts of the pockets of a pack carrier to be passed therebetween, and the arc of each guide means extending substantially to the path of the pack carriers, and the arms of the starwheels moving in the downstream direction when rotated with the arms of respective layered elements extending immediately above and below the path of the pack carriers;
• (e) means for supplying first and second consecutive single file series of the bottles simultaneously to each starwheel, respectively;
• and
• (f) indexing means for closely aligning the moving pockets on each side of advancing pack carriers with the moving pockets of the respective application starwheels rotating during such advancing, the pockets between the arms of the star-shaped elements being shaped to provide a cam--like action to force each bottle carried in a pocket of each application starwheel in turn into an aligned pocket of a pack carrier moving out of the enclosed zone between the application starwheels, the indexing means providing for simultaneously forcing bottles into back-to-back pockets of the pack carriers;
• and
• (g) the arms of the star-shaped elements during rotation being adapted to bear against each successive bottle just loaded into a pack carrier to shove the pack carrier incrementally downstream for loading the next back to back bottles and moving the fully loaded pack carrier out of the loading station to a discharge point.

Apparatus for the high speed assembly of capped bottles, while filled with a composition, into pack carriers therefor wherein the bottles to be assembled are of substantially the same size and shape and have a substantially cylindrical no--neck body or a cylindrical neck portion and a closure with a rim that is larger in diameter than the no-neck body or the neck portion, and the pack carriers have a longitudinal central section from which extends a plurality of back to back aligned pairs of laterally opening clips or pockets into which the bodies or necks of the bottles are adapted to be resiliently inserted sideways and resiliently held, the apparatus comprising:

• (a) an enclosed zone with open upstream and downstream ends and with a substantially level slidable upper floor surface extending therethrough, and a substantially level slidable lower support surface extending downstream therefrom;
• (b) an application starwheel at each side of the downstream end of the enclosed zone, each starwheel with associated retentive curved guide means;
• (c) a metering starwheel with associated retentive curved guide means adjacent each application starwheel;
• (d) means for feeding a substantially contiguous series of bottles to each metering starwheel;
• (e) means for feeding a substantially contiguous series of pack carriers into the enclosed zone and across the slidable upper floor surface to the downstream end thereof;
• (f) the application starwheels each having at least upper, lower and intermediate level star-shaped elements with equally spaced arms and pockets between the arms;
• (g) the respective application starwheels being spaced apart sufficiently for the pack carriers to slide therebetween, but close enough that bottles carried in the pockets of the application starwheels are forced into the aligned pockets of each successive pack carrier simultaneously from each lateral side of the pack carrier;
• (h) the starwheel pockets having perimeter edges and the edges being shaped to have a cam-like action to force the bottles into the pack carrier pockets during rotation of the application starwheels;
• and
• (i) the rotation of each of the application starwheels being coordinatable, with that of their respective associated metering starwheel to effect consecutive transfers of bottles, and, with the advance of each successive pack carrier to accomplish alignment with and insertion of bottles into the pockets of the pack carrier, the arms of the application starwheel being adapted to move during rotation to push repetitively downstream on successive pairs of bottles just inserted back to back into the pack carrier being loaded, each time moving the pack carrier an incremental distance and indexing the pack carrier position into the alignment needed to receive the next succeeding bottle from each side into back to back pack carrier pockets.

A method of high speed loading of bottles while filled with a composition, into pack carriers therefor wherein the bottles to be assembled are of substantially the same size and shape and have a substantially cylindrical no-neck body, or a cylindrical neck portion, and are closed with a screwcap that is larger in diameter than the no-neck body or neck portion, and the pack carriers having a longitudinal central section from which extends a plurality of back-to-back aligned pairs of laterally opening clips or pockets into which the bodies or necks of the bottles are resiliently inserted sideways and resiliently held, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a loading station with an enclosed zone open at the upstream end and the downstream end and with lateral walls and an upper hold-down guide member and a substantially level upper slidable surface extending therethrough, and, at the downstream end, two laterally spaced apart application starwheels, each with at least three layered star-shaped elements upon an axial shaft, controllable power means for coordinated rotation of the axial shafts, and associated curved guide means adjacent each application starwheel at the upstream side, the star-shaped elements having arms and pockets therebetween;
• (b) advancing steadily to the enclosed zone and sliding therethrough on the upper slidable surface to the point of emergence at the downstream end a substantially contiguous single file series of pack carriers in the longitudinal direction;
• (c) concurrently rotating the starwheels and supplying to each respective starwheel and its associated guide means a single file consecutive series of bottles received and positioned to fit between the guide means and consecutive pockets between the arms of the star-shaped elements to ride on the application starwheel with the screwcap of each bottle overlapping the upper edge of a pocket of the uppermost star-shaped element;
• (d) rotating coordinately the two application starwheels with the arms of the star-shaped elements extending just above and below the path of the adjacent pockets of each pack carrier being sled in between and the so-extending arms moving in the downstream direction during rotation, and the spacing between each application starwheel and each adjacent pack carrier sliding out of the enclosed zone being such that there is a no-neck body or neck diameter width spacing between the deepest part of the pockets of each of the respective starwheels and of the pack carrier being loaded at closest coordinated and indexed approach;
• and
• (e) thereby inserting consecutive bottles into consecutive pockets on each side of the pack carrier being loaded, the back to back pockets of the pack carrier being loaded simultaneously;
• and arms of the star-shaped elements engaging the just-inserted bottles, bottle by bottle, simultaneously on both sides of the pack carrier, moving the pack carrier incrementally downstream and indexing the same to receive the next pair of bottles, and finally advancing each fully loaded pack carrier in turn out of the loading station, permitting the following pack carrier to advance contiguously in indexed fashion to commence loading.