GB680454A - Improvements in or relating to the handling of containers, especially bottles and jars - Google Patents

Abstract

680,454. Suction appliances for gripping loads. BEECH, F. J. Nov. 23, 1950. [Nov. 23, 1949 ; April 18, 1950] Nos. 30025/49 and 9469/50. Class 78 (iv). In the self-sealing suction appliance shown in Fig. 3, a resilient-washer 28 seals the wide mouth of a bottle or jar 20 evacuated through bores 32, 33 in a pin 21 by which the lifting device is suspended from a plate 24. The washer 28 is guided by a metal bush 30 sliding on an extension 29 of the pin 21 and serving as a leaky seal for the bore 32 until the washer is raised by a bottle to engage the rim 27 of a flange 26 on the pin. The leakage past the bush 30 then evacuates the interior of the rim 27 to sustain the washer. Several such devices may be disposed for simultaneous engagement with an orderly arrangement of bottles in a crate ; each device has a flange 22 held on one of a number of conical seats 23 in a common plate 24 by a spring 25 adapted to yield to accommodate a bottle which is not properly seated in the crate. A pilot boss 35 ensures proper register with the bottle. In a similar device to that of Fig. 3 the bottle is evacuated through vents arranged in the top of a chamber within the boss 35 so as to be sealed by the face of the washer 28 : the bush 30 is omitted. In a further modification for lifting cans by their flat ends the washer 28 is formed as a deep inverted cup with a fairly wide rim for engaging the can, and the bore 33 opens into a chamber shaped as a shallow box housed within the washer and formed in its upper surface with vents which may be sealed by the inner surface of the washer. For lifting bottles with narrow mouths a vacuum cup 70, Fig. 2, is formed with a resilient lip 71 engaging the neck of the bottle and the bottle is aligned with the cup by the sloping undersurface 82 of a spring-biased plunger 73 movable with only slight side play within the cup. The plunger is retained by a rod 74 passing with play through a hole 75 in the base of the cup and carrying a nut 76 adapted to prevent passage of air through the hole 75 to the vacuum connection 79 when no bottle is present. The plunger 73 also prevents a foil seal on the bottle from being raised by the suction. The cylindrical side of a, can may be engaged for lifting by a suction cup with a mouth shaped to the contour of the can.