Portable and automatic bottle filling/capping apparatus and methods

A portable, automatic bottle filling apparatus, comprising:

• a housing;
• an elongated frame enclosed within the housing that defines an endless conveying path, wherein the housing comprises an access door movable between closed and opened positions to provide access to the conveying path;
• a conveyor system supported by the frame that moves bottles along the conveying path, the conveyor system comprising:
• a friction drive pulley supported by the frame adjacent to a conveying path first end;
• a belt drive pulley supported by the frame adjacent to a conveying path second end;
• an endless belt extending about the friction drive and belt drive pulleys, wherein the endless belt is configured to frictionally engage bottles in the conveying path;
• and
• a motor assembly supported by the frame, the motor assembly including a motor and motor shaft that is rotatably driven by the motor, wherein the belt drive pulley is operatively coupled to the motor shaft, and wherein rotation of the belt drive pulley via the motor causes the endless belt to move and thereby convey bottles along the conveying path;
• a liquid filling station supported by the frame adjacent to the conveying path that is configured to fill an empty bottle with liquid from a liquid source;
• a capping station supported by the frame downstream from the liquid filling station that is configured to close a filled bottle with a cap, the capping station comprising:
• a screw cap dispenser supported by the frame and positioned above the conveying path, wherein the dispenser comprises an outlet configured to releasably retain a screw cap therein such that a mouth of the bottle moving along the conveying path from the liquid filling station makes contact with the screw cap and causes the outlet to release the screw cap onto the bottle mouth;
• an arcuate wall positioned above the conveying path downstream from the dispenser outlet;
• a rotatable wheel positioned above the conveying path downstream from the dispenser outlet in spaced-apart relationship with the arcuate wall;
• and
• a rotatable gripper arm operatively coupled to the motor shaft and configured to engage a bottle located under the dispenser outlet and move the bottle along the conveying path a predetermined distance, wherein movement of the bottle along the predetermined distance causes a cap positioned on the bottle mouth to frictionally engage the arcuate wall and wheel and rotate relative to the bottle and so as to become threadingly engaged with the bottle mouth;
• a sensor system configured to detect the presence of an empty, uncapped bottle at the liquid filling station;
• and
• a controller that controls operations of the liquid filling station, capping station and conveyor system in response to signals received from the sensor system.