Filling and handling bottles

Abstract

A bottling apparatus has a frame and an endless conveyor element on the frame and having a horizontal lower stretch, an upper stretch above the lower stretch, and upstream and downstream corners where the element changes direction. A plurality of pairs of upstream and downstream plates are each secured to the element with the plates of each pair having confronting edges each in turn formed with a cutout. The cutouts of each pair form in the straight stretches a seat adapted to fit snugly around a neck of a bottle. The edges are spaced apart at the corners so that, at the corners, they cannot hold a bottle. A drive advances the element in a horizontal transport direction in the lower stretch and separates the plates of each pair at the upstream and downstream corners. A holder adapted to support at least one bottle at the upstream corner is movable between a loading position fitting the neck of the supported bottle to the cutout of the downstream plate at the upstream corner and a preloading position offset from the upstream corner. Respective spacers hold each of the plates offset from the conveyor element so that as the plates move around the corners they are separated at the edges. These spacers are mounting brackets fixed to the element and to the respective plates.

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