Multi-pass inverting bottle cleaner

#Bottles and similar containers often must undergo a cleaning of some sort prior to their actual use. Particularly does this represent the situation where these items will hold some material consumable by animals, especially humans. In such cases, the bottles will experience a multiplicity of cleaning stages. In one of the stages, an actual cleaning solution will contact the containers' interiors. This serves to provide assurance that undesirable substances will undergo removal from the bottles. Subsequently, the bottles will experience a rinsing stage. This removes the cleaning solution itself from the bottles.

#One particularly effective manner of carrying out the cleaning and rinsing involves inverting the bottles during each of the stages. The machinery then sprays the appropriate liquid into the containers while upside-down.

#Inverting the bottles produces a number of desirable effects. First, it sprays liquids with the minimum level of contaminating agents on the bottles' interiors. Second, it provides a continuous spray of fresh liquid to remove the contaminants. Third, it allows the force of the spray itself contacting the interior surface to assist in the contaminant removal.

#FIG. 1 gives an isometric view of a bottle cleaner twice inverting and spray cleaning bottles while inverted.

#FIG. 1A gives a top plan view of a short segment of a chain holding bottles undergoing cleaning.

#FIG. 1B gives a cross sectional view along the line 1B-1B of the bottle cleaner of FIG. 1.

#FIG. 1 shows a two-stage bottle cleaner generally at 20 in which bottles 21 which will undergo cleaning arrive along the conveyor 22. The bottles 21 move to the right until the two gripping chains 24 and 25 grab onto them. As seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, the belt chain 24, as seen from the top and at the right end of the cleaner 20, rotates in a clockwise direction at its turning point 26. At the corresponding turning point 27, the belt 25 rotates in the counterclockwise direction. With the belts 24 and 25 moving in this direction, they create the narrow shaft 28 between them. This shaft 28 moves to the right at the right end of the cleaner, taking the bottles in that direction as seen in FIGS. 1, 3, and 4.

#As seen in FIGS. 1, 1A, and 1B, the chains 24 and 25 include the polymer pads 31, obtained from TSE Industries, Inc., of Clearwater, Fla., attached to the metal chain skeleton 32 provided by Rexnord, Inc., of Grove City, Ohio. The pads 31 attached to the chains 24 and 25 serve to grip the bottles 21, hold onto them, and take then through the first stage of cleaning. As discussed below, similar pads on further chains will similarly hold onto and take the bottles through the second and possibly the third cleaning.

#As the bottles 21 move to the right in FIG. 1 in the space 28 between the two chains 24 and 25, they reach the right end 36 of the cleaner 20 and rotate 180 degrees in the clockwise direction and invert. As seen in FIG. 1B, the bottles 21 receive a spray from the fluid head 37 for their first stage of cleaning. The liquid then drains off of the bottles 21 and into the pan 38.