US 5,471,814 AGranted

Ring handle applicator

OwnerKlaus Ruckdschelinventor

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Abstract

A pneumatically-controlled container ring handle applicator--a mechanical device for installing plastic handles around bottle necks by forcibly expanding a plastic ring of the handle as it is urged onto the bottle neck--includes a finger carrier to which carrier is connected a plurality of pivoting fingers that extend from the carrier through slots out of the tube to push a plastic handle ring down a frustum portion of the applicator, expanding the ring as it moves on the increasing frustum diameter until the ring falls off the end of the applicator over a bottle neck placed below the applicator. Movement of the carrier in the finger cylinder is pneumatically-controlled with a piston in a cylindrical tube that moves down a piston cylinder under pneumatic pressure and returns to a rest position under bias of a spring secured in the cylinder under the piston which is compressed as the piston moves down the cylinder. A piston rod connects the piston to the finger carrier.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A ring applicator for applying a plastic handle ring on a bottle neck over a bottle neck lip by temporarily expanding the ring as it is applied, comprising

a finger cylinder with longitudinal slide slots intermediate its length,
a conical member expanding from the finger cylinder forming a frustum on the cylinder with a frustum base, the cylinder sized to the inner diameter of the ring such that the ring slides over the cylinder and onto the frustum, and further having a longitudinal finger channel extending from each side slot to the frustum base,
a plurality of fingers each including a finger shaft moving in a side slot and a finger head on each shaft slidably moving from within the finger channel on the cylinder and the frustum circumference out of the channel to engage a ring such that the finger head pushes the ring over the frustum surface of increasing diameter until the ring falls over the frustum base, the finger head rising from a channel depth at the side slot such that the finger head is contained within the channel with the channel tapering to near-zero depth at the frustum base, the cylinder, fingers and frustum comprising a piston cylinder assembly,
means to impel the fingers in the channels, and
means to withdraw the fingers with finger heads into the channel.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.