US3785195A

US3785195A - Apparatus for testing pressure resistance of bottles

Info

Publication number: US3785195A
Authority: US
Inventors: T Yasuhiro; N Katsutoshi
Original assignee: Yamamura Glass KK
Current assignee: Yamamura Glass KK
Priority date: 1972-08-07
Filing date: 1972-08-07
Publication date: 1974-01-15
Anticipated expiration: 1991-01-15

Abstract

An apparatus comprises a cross feed conveyor to be driven intermittently by an intermittently driving mechanism for transporting bottle-containing boxes and temporarily stopping each of the boxes at a pressure fluid supply station, pressure applying heads identical in number and arrangement to the bottles in the box for supplying a pressure fluid to the bottles to conduct a pressure resistance test, a feed conveyor for supplying the bottle-containing boxes onto the cross feed conveyor in timed relation to the intermittent travel of the latter conveyor, and a delivery conveyor for receiving bottle-containing boxes from the cross feed conveyor after they have been tested and transferring the boxes to the next process. At the pressure fluid supply station, the bottle-containing box on the conveyor is raised or the pressure applying heads are lowered to associate all the bottles with all the pressure applying heads simultaneously to introduce the pressure fluid into the bottles and thereby apply pressure to the bottles in the associated state, whereby all the bottles in each of the intermittently transported boxes are subjected to the pressure resistance test.

Description

United States Patent [191 Yasuhiro et a].

[ Jan. 15, 1974 APPARATUS FOR TESTING PRESSURE RESISTANCE 0F BOTTLES [75] Inventors: Tomita Yasuhiro, Nishinomiya;

Nakayama Katsutoshi, ltami, both of Japan [73] Assignee: Yamamura Glass Kabushiki Kaisha,

Hyogo, Japan [22] Filed: Aug. 7, 1972 [21] App]. No.: 278,485

[52] US. Cl 73/37, 73/45.1, 198/20 R [51] Int. Cl. G0lm 3/02 [58] Field of Search 73/37, 41, 45, 45.1, 73/45.2, 49.2; 198/20 R, 37

{56] 1 References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 2,084,653 6/1937 Preston 73/45.1 X

2,314,310 3/1943 Jackson et al, 73/37 2,407,062 9/1946 Darrah 73/41 X 2,606,657 8/1952 Berthelsen 73/45.l X

3,247,707 4/1966 Tatro l 73/49.2 3,489,275 l/197O Powers, Jr. 73/37 X 3,704,623 12/1972 Kluig l 73/37 Primary Examiner-Richard C. Oueisser Assistant Examiner-Joseph W. Roskos Att0meyJohn C. Holman et a1.

[57] ABSTRACT An apparatus comprises a cross feed conveyor to be driven intermittently by an intermittently driving mechanism for transporting bottle-containing boxes and temporarily stopping each of the boxes at a pressure fluid supply station, pressure applying heads identical in number and arrangement to the bottles in the box for supplying a pressure fluid to the bottles to conduct a pressure resistance test, a feed conveyor for supplying the bottle-containing boxes onto the cross feed conveyor in timed relation to the intermittent travel of the latter conveyor,'and a delivery conveyor for receiving bottle-containing boxes from the cross feed conveyor after they have been tested and transferring the boxes to the next process. At the pressure fluid supply station, the bottle-containing box on the conveyor is raised or the pressure applying heads are lowered to associate all the bottles with all the pressure applying heads simultaneously to introduce the pressure fluid into the bottles and thereby apply pres sure to the bottles in the associated state, whereby all the bottles in each of the intermittently transported boxes are subjected to the pressure resistance test.

9 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTED JAN 1 5 I974 SHLU 1 UP 4 PATENTED JAN 3 5 L974 SHEET & UP 4 Fig.5

APPARATUS FOR TESTING PRESSURE RESISTANCE OF BOTTLES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for testing pressure resistance of bottles.

The contents of bottle containers are generally classified into two groups: the contents such as carbonated drinks and beer which exert internal pressure on the bottle and those which do not exert internal pressure on the bottle such as milk, jam and the like. Glass bottles which are filled with beverages exerting internal pressure may possibly burst even when subjected to a very low external pressure due to a slight flaw therein, changes resulting from years of use or the like. Thus, the ambient conditions and the internal pressure exerted by the contents on the bottle will cause the bottle to burst upon the lapse of an indefinite period of time after it has been filled with the contents, causing a possible hazard to the human body which is much more serious than the consequent economical loss due to the breakage of the bottle and outflow of the contents. Accordingly, bottle containers which are likely to burst have to be identified and discarded prior to use. However, defective bottles which involve the hazard of rupture have heretofore been checked with the naked eye in an inspection line subsequent to the filling operation, so that it has been almost impossible to find out all of the defective bottles with impaired strength.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is to disuse any bottles whose strength has been deteriorated due to flaws, changes caused by years of use or the like and which therefore involve the hazard of bursting, by introducing a high pressure fluid into the bottle to burst the bottle intentionally before it is filled with the contents.

Another object of this invention is to automatically test the strength of all the bottles on the filling line and to conduct such test on the bottles as they are contained in cases or boxes, with a constant number of the bottles in each box. I

Another object of this invention is to properly conduct the pressure resistance test by introducing a high pressure fluid into bottles and intentionally burst defective bottles under conditions in conformity with those under which a defective bottle will burst spontaneously due to the internal pressure cause'd by the contents of the bottle.

The apparatus of this invention is characterized by a construction comprising means for filling all of a plurality of bottle containers with a pressure fluid through pressure fluid supply heads at a predetermined station which bottle containers are brought to a halt at the station and a conveyor system for transporting boxes each containing therein the bottles to the pressure fluid supplying station, stopping each of the boxes at this station for a period of time required for the pressure resistance test and discharging the boxes from the testing station upon the lapse of the required period of time.

The conveyor system comprises a cross feed conveyor for conveying the bottle-containing boxes intermittently to the testing station one after another and transporting the boxes to another position after stopping each of the boxes at the testing station for a definite period of time, a feed conveyor extending at right angles to the cross feed conveyor and feeding the bottle-containing boxes to the starting end of the cross feed conveyor in timed relation to the intermittent travel of the cross feed conveyor, and a delivery conveyor for transporting the bottle-containing boxes from the terminal end of the cross feed conveyor to another process after the boxes have been sent to the terminal end by the cross feed conveyor.

Where desired, a plurality of the testing stations are provided, with a plurality of the cross feed conveyors disposed in parallel in corresponding relation thereto. The feed conveyor supplies the bottle containing boxes to the starting ends of the cross feed conveyors and the delivery conveyor receives the bottle-containing boxes from the terminal ends of the cross feed conveyors after the bottles have been tested and transported to the terminal ends and transfers the boxes to the next process.

The present invention is further characterized in that the pressure fluid supply head at the pressure resistance testing station for filling the bottle container with the pressure fluid has a device for sealing the bottle container which comprises an annular packing fitted around a pressure fluid injecting nozzle of the head and having such an outer diameter as to permit the packing to be inserted into the mouth of the bottle container and clamp means for clamping the annular packing from the above and thereunder to cause the same to expand outwardly radially into fitting contact with the bottle mouth.

According to this invention, all of a constant number of bottles can be subjected to an automatic pressure resistance test asthey are contained in a box on the conveyor line. Consequently, the pressure resistance testing process can be incorporated, along with a bottle cleaning process or the like, into a bottle supply line for the filling process so as to provide an independent line for operations starting with treatment of collected bottles and ending with filling of the bottles.

Further, since the sealing of mouth of the bottle to fill the bottle with the pressure fluid is effected by causing the annular packing to expand outwardly radially within the mouth of bottle into fitting contact therewith, instead of applying an external pressure on the bottle as by holding the bottle, the external force or pressure to be exerted on the bottle to induce bursting for the pressure resistance test will be limited only to the fluid pressure, with the result that the test conditions can be determined suitably by adjusting the pres sure of the fluid to carry out a proper pressure resistance test in conformity with conditions under which spontaneous burstingof a defective bottle will take place.

These and other features and advantages of this invention will become more apparent from the description of an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a front view schematically showing an apparatus of this invention for testing the pressure resistance of bottles by filling them with pressure water;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same;

FIG. 3 is a view in vertical section showing an embodiment of water supply head included in the appara tus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view in vertical section showing an embodiment of pressure fluid supply head incorporated in the apparatus of FIG. I, the head being shown independently of a bottle;

FIG. is a view in vertical section illustrating the head of FIG. 4 as it is associated with a bottle just before the pressure resistance test is conducted; and

FIG. 6 is a view in vertical section on an enlarged scale illustrating part of the head in the state of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The embodiment shown in the drawings performs pressure resistance test by supplying pressure water into bottles.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a feed conveyor 1 feeds boxes of empty bottles collected from customers. The feed conveyor 1 comprises low speed rollers 2, idle rollers 3, high speed rollers 4, movable stoppers 5, 6, 7 and a stationary stopper 8. The group oflow speed rollers 2 and the group of high speed rollers 4 are continuously driven by separate drive means respectively, with the former being driven at a lower rate than the latter.

The stoppers 5, 6 and 7 are moved upward and downward by separate cylinders (not shown) independently of one another. The stationary stopper 8 is fixed in position at the terminal end of the conveyor 1. When the movable stoppers 5, 6 and 7 are moved upward with the stationary stopper 8 fixedly positioned in the conveying path of the conveyor 1, the boxes containing the bottles in transit are stopped by the stoppers at respective positions.

Cross feed conveyors 9 movable in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the feed conveyor I carry the bottle-containing boxes from feeding stations A to water supply stations B, then to pressure applying stations C and finally to discharge stations D. Each of the cross feed conveyor 9 is driven for intermittent conveying operation by a continuously driven motor 11 by way of a clutch brake unit and sprockets 13. The feeding station A, water supply station B, pressure applying station C and discharge station D are equidistantly located along the cross feed conveyor 9. Pushers 12 are mounted on the cross feed conveyor 9 along its entire periphery in the same equidistantly spaced relation as above. The cross feed conveyor 9 comprisesa pair of

endless chains

9a and 9b between which the pushers 12 extend. Two pushers 12 are provided for each box to be transported, in the front and rear of the box respectively, so as to stop the box at each of the stations.

Lift rails 15 are disposed at the feeding station A for slightly raising the box from the upper face of the high speed rollers 4, with the lift rails being movable upward and downward by a cylinder 14. The lift rails 15 serve to provide a space between the high speed rollers 4 and the bottom of the box so that the box brought to the feeding station A will be transferred smoothly onto the cross feed conveyor 9 at right angles to the feed conveyor 1. The lift rails 15 raise the box to a level indicated in the phantom line at the station A in FIG. 1.

The water supply station B is provided with a lift plate 16 which is movable upward and downward by a cylinder 17. The box brought to the water supply station B is raised by the lift plate 16 to such a level that the mouths of the bottles in the box will be inserted into water supply heads 18, which are attached to a frame 19. Low pressure water is supplied to the bottles from a hose through the water supply heads 18. As shown in FIG. 3, the water supply head 18 comprises a nozzle 18a connected to the hose 20 and a bottle guide 1812 fitted around the end of the nozzle 18a. The nozzle 18a is fixed in position, while the guide 18b is movable upward and downward relative to the nozzle 18a and is urged downward all the time by a spring 180. When the bottle is pushed up by the lift plate 16, the mouth of the bottle is guided by the flaring opening of the guide 1812 to permit the nozzle 18a to properly position in the mouth of the bottle.

The pressure applying station C has a lift plate 21 which is movable upward and downward by a cylinder 22. When the box containing bottles filled with water at the water supply station B arrives at the station C, the box is raised by the lift plate 21 to such a level that the mouth of each bottle will be inserted into a pressure applying head 23 for supplying a pressure fluid, with the level being indicated in the phantom line at the station C in FIG. 1. The head 23 is attached to the frame 19 and supplies high pressure water from a pump P to the bottle when the valve 25 on an intermediate portion of a hose 24 is opened, whereby a pressure resistance test is effected.

To supply high pressure water to each bottle which has already been filled with low pressure water, the pressure applying head 23 includes, in addition to the nozzle to be inserted into the bottle, means for sealing the mouth of the bottle while the nozzle is inserted in the mouth. The water supply heads 18 and pressure applying heads 23 are identical in number and in arrangement to the bottles in the box to be brought to the water supply station B and pressure applying station C.

A delivery conveyor 26 comprises a group of conveyor rollers 27. When a box containing bottles which have been tested is sent to the delivery station D by the cross feed conveyor 9, the group of rollers 27 guide the box in a direction at right angles to the direction of travel of the cross feed conveyor 9 as seen in FIG. 2. The conveyor rollers 27 are continuously driven by drive means provided exclusively for the delivery conveyor 26.

The compressing means 23c comprises the nozzle 23a, a stationary sleeve 23d fitted around the nozzle 23a and permitting the sliding movement of the nozzle 23a therein and a cylinder 23c for moving the nozzle 23a upward and downward. Formed in the periphery of a lower end portion of the nozzle 23a is a stepped portion 23f which is in opposing relation to the end face 23g of the stationary sleeve 23d. The annular packing 23b is positioned between the stepped portion 23f and the end face 23g and is therefore clamped and compressed when the nozzle 23a is urged upward by the cylinder 23c, whereby the packing will be forced outward radially. Normally, the annular packing 23b has an outer diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the mouth of the bottle but, when expanded outward in radial directions within the mouth, will fit tightly to the mouth to seal the same.

Further, as seen in FIG. 6, the peripheral surface of the nozzle 23a on which the annular packing 23b is positioned is bulged such that the peripheral surface at its midpoint has a great diameter which gradually decreases upward and downward. The annular packing 23b is therefore fitted around this portionalong the bulged peripheral surface so as to be readily expanded outward at the midportion of the peripheral surface when compressed from the above and thereunder.

A support 23h supports the cylinder 23e and the stationary sleeve 23d integrally therewith. By fixing the support 23h to the frame 19, the pressure applying head 23 is secured to the frame 19. The pressure applying head 23 further includes a bottle guide 23a which is attached to the stationary sleeve 23d in a upwardly and downwardly movable manner and urged downward by a spring 23j all the time. The mouth of the bottle raised at the pressure applying station C is guided by the downwardly flaring opening of the bottle guide 23i to lead the nozzle 23a properly into the mouth.

A series of operation of the illustrated embodiment will now be described.

A box 28 containing empty bottles collected by the bottler, when carried forward by the feed conveyor 1, is temporarily stopped by the stopper 5, by which boxes following the first box are also brought to a halt in fitting contact with each other. When it is detected electrically that several boxes have been retained on the feed conveyor 1 in this state, simultaneously with the emission of a signal indicating that one pitch of movement of the cross feed conveyors 9 have been completed, the stoppers 5, 6 and 7 are moved down, mak ing the box 28 ready to advance to the feeding station A. When the foremost box 28 of a row of the boxes is freed from retention to resume the forward movement and arrives at the first of the high speed rollers 4, the box 28 advances at an increased speed since the group of high speed rollers 4 are driven at a higher rate than the group oflow speed rollers 2, with the result that the following boxes 28 are spaced apart from the foremost box. The subsequent boxes follow the same movement as above one after another..Consequently the row of boxes is sent forward on the group of rollers 4 at equal spacing.

The foremost box 28 advancing on the group of high speed rollers 4 is then stopped by the stopper 8, which is detected by a limit switch or the like to raise the stopper 7, which in turn brings the next box 28 to a halt. With a slight time delay from the elevation of the stop per 7, the stopper 6 is raised to stop the third box 28. Some time later than the elev ation of the stopper 6, the stopper 5 is raised to keep boxes 28 waiting on the group of low speed rollers 2 and idle rollers 3 which boxes are to be inspected during the next cycle of operation.

in this way, the stoppers 6, 7 and 8 stop the boxes 28 at three feeding stations A provided on the group of high speed rollers 4. The cross feed conveyors 9 extend from the feeding stations A to the discharge stations D located at three portions in the starting end of the delivery conveyor 28, with each of the cross feed conveyors 9 being provided with the water supply station B and pressure applying station C. The water supply heads 18 and pressure applying heads 23 are disposed above each of the stations B and C to conduct a pressure resistance test on the three cross feed conveyors 9.

Since the three cross feed conveyors perform the same operation, this operation will be described below with respect to only one cross feed conveyor.

ln timed relation to the elevation of the stopper 6, the lift rails are raised by the cylinder 14 to push up the box 28 off the high speed rollers 4 which box is positioned at the feeding station A, whereby the box 28 is made ready for crosswise travel. At this time, a previous cycle of operation at the water supply and pressure applying stations is being carried out, with the lift plate 16 for supplying water and the lift plate 21 for applying pressure in raised positions. Upon completion of these two steps of operation, both the

lift plates

16 and 21 are moved down, which is detected to actuate the clutch of the clutch brake unit 10, initiating the cross feed conveyor 9 into travel through power transmission from the drive means 11.

The boxes at the feeding station A, water supply station B and pressure applying station C are forced for ward by the pushers 12 on the cross feed conveyor 9 up to the predetermined positions for the next steps of operation. In other words, the boxes are sent forward crosswise by a distance corresponding to one pitch of the pushers 12. The travel of the cross feed conveyor 9 by the one pitch, when completed, is electrically detected for example by a limit switch or the like to produce an electrical signal, which in turn actuates the brake of the clutch brake unit 10 to deenergize the drive means 11, whereupon the cross feed conveyor 9 is stopped. The electrical signal is used as one of the signals to initiate the downward movement of the stoppers 5, 6 and 7.

When the boxes 28 stop at the respective stations, the box 28 at the water supply station E is raised by the lift plate 16 attached to the cylinder 17, causing the mouths of bottles 29 in the box 28 to be guided by the bottle guides 18a into the heads 18. Consequently, the water supply nozzles 18a are inserted into the bottles 29. Since the bottle 29 pushes up the bottle guide 18a against the action of the spring 18c at this time, the upward movement of the bottle guide 18b is detected as by electrical means to produce an electrical signal, which opens the valve 30 provided midway of the water supply hose 20 to initiate the water supply from the nozzles 18a into the bottles 29. The water supply is interrupted by a timer or the like upon the lapse ofa predetermined period of time which is required for filling the bottles 29 with low pressure water. In this way, all the bottles 29 in the box 28 are filled with low pressure water through the water supply heads 18 which are identical to the bottles in number. The water is supplied to such an extent that some water will overflow from the bottle 29. The water supply head 18 is, of course, so designed that it will not seal the: mouth of the bottle 29.

Simultaneously with the supplyof water at the water supply station B, the box 28 at the next station C is raised by the lift plate 21 and is subjected to a pressure resistance test. The pressureresistance test at the pressure applying station C will now be described in detail.

Each of the bottles 29 in the box 28 pushed up by the lift plate 21 has its mouth 29a guided by the bottle guide 23i and pushed into the head 23, permitting the nozzle 23a to enter the bottle 29. During this movement, the elevation of the bottle guide 231' relative to the stationary sleeve 23d as shown in FIG. 5 is electrically detected to open the valve 25 and thereby cause the nozzle 23a to supply high pressure water into the bottle 29 which has already been filled with water in the preceding step.

On the other hand, simultaneously with the supply of pressure water, the nozzle 23a is moved up by the cylinder 23e relative to the stationarysleeve 23d, whereby the annular packing 23b fitted around the nozzle 23a is expanded outward radially into snug-fit contact with the mouth of the bottle 29 as indicated in the phantom line in FIG. 6. Thus, the packing 23b seals the mouth of the bottle 29 with the nozzle 23a inserted in the bottle 29.

if the bottle 29 is sealed slightly later than the supply of pressure water, air which may possibly remain in the bottle 29 can be driven out.

A predetermined test pressure, once achieved within the sealed bottled 29, is maintained for a period of time to test the pressure resistance. A defective bottle 29 failing to withstand the test pressure will burst when supplied with the pressure water. Even when the bottle 29 bursts, the pieces will not scatter about because of the viscosity of water. Further, when bursting takes place, a pressure switch 31 on the water supply hose 24 closes the valve 25 to prevent outflow of water more than the amount contained in the bottle 29.

If the mouth of the burst bottle 29 remains on the nozzle 23a and annular packing 23b, contraction of the annular packing 23b due to the return of the cylinder 23e permits the mouth to fall spontaneously. If the mouth should still be retained, the guide 23i when forced down by the spring 23j causes the mouth to slip off.

After the pressure resistance test has been conducted for a required period oftime on the bottle 29, the cylinder 232 is returned by a timer or the like and the valve 25 is closed.

Average time taken for the bottles within the box to be filled with water is preset on the timer, which produces a signal to lower the water supply lift plate 16 with proper timing. When each bottle 29 is released from the water supply head 18 by the descending lift plate 16, the bottle guide 18!) moves down under the action of the spring 180, which is detected electrically to close the valve 30 to complete the supply of water.

The pressure resistance test has been completed by the time the lift plate 16 is moved down, and the lift plate 21 is lowered with the same timing as the lift plate 16.

When the downward movement of the

lift plates

16 and 21 is completed, namely when the boxes 28 at the water supply station B and pressure applying station C are placed on the cross feed conveyor 9 again, an electrical signal is sent out to actuate the clutch of the clutch brake unit 10, permitting the cross feed conveyor 9 to resume its travel. By this time, a box containing bottles to be supplied with water subsequently is raised by the lift rails at the feeding station A, ready for crosswise travel. The box is therefore sent to the water supply station E where the next operation is to be performed. The bottles 29 which have proved resistant to the high pressure water by the pressure resistance test are still contained in the box 28, with water filled therein, while a majority of pieces of the bottle which has ruptured under the pressure are received in the box. The box is then sent further crosswise from the pressure applying station C to the discharge station D, from which it is transported by rollers 27 of the delivery conveyor 26 in a direction at right angles to that of crosswise travel as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 2.

The bottles 29 filled with water to the full are taken out of the box 28 by an uncaser incorporated in an unillustrated filling line to which the test line is connected and drained while being tumbled over in a bottle cleaner. The pieces of the burst bottle are removed from the box 28 when it is turned upside down by a box cleaner (unillustrated) after the good bottles have been removed from the box.

Although the illustrated embodiment has three rows of water supply and pressure applying stations, the number of rows of the stations will be increased or decreased depending upon the layout of the plant and the desired treating ability. Further, although the water supply step and the pressure applying step are provided separately, the independent water supply step will be eliminated, for example, by raising the nozzle 23a of the pressure applying head 23 sufficiently later than supply of pressure water so as to fill the bottle with pressure water to the full prior to the application of ous operation line starting with treatment of collected bottles and ending with refilling or delivery as at bottlers.

Since the sealing of bottles when subjecting them to pressure can be effected without applying an external pressure which will be exterted thereon as when the bottles are held down and which is entirely irrelevant to spontaneous rupture of defective bottles, the test pressure can be set at an appropriate level to conduct the pressure resistance test very properly under intentional conditions in conformity with those which will induce spontaneous bursting of defective bottles. Accordingly, the present invention eliminates the economical disadvantage of intentionally bursting bottles which will not burst when used for the intended contents and obviates the hazard of reusing bottles which are not fully pressure-resistant.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for testing pressure resistance of b0t-, ties of the case-in type comprising a cross feed conveyor to be driven intermittently by an intermittently driving means for transporting bottle-containing boxes and temporarily stopping each of the boxes at a pressure fluid supply station, pressure applying heads disposed at the pressure fluid supply station on the conveyor and identical in number and arrangement to the bottles in the box for supplying a pressure fluid to the bottles stopped at the station to conduct a pressure resistance test, a feed conveyor for supplying the bottlecontaining boxes onto the cross feed conveyor in timed relation to the intermittent travel of the latter conveyor, and a delivery conveyor for receiving bottlecontaining boxes from the cross feed conveyor after the bottles have been tested and transferring the boxes to the next process.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the feed conveyor comprises a portion composed of a group of low speed rollers, another portion composed of a group of high speed rollers, and idle rollers disposed between the two portions, the feed conveyor being so positioned as to operate in a direction at right angles to the direction of travel of cross feed conveyor, the portion of high speed roller group being connected to the starting end of the cross feed conveyor, the delivery conveyor being so disposed as to operate in a direction at right angles to the direction of travel of the cross feed conveyor, the cross feed conveyor being connected at its terminal end to the starting end of the delivery conveyor, a stopper being disposed between the idle rollers of the feed conveyor and the first of the group of high speed rollers for temporarily stopping the box on the feed conveyor at its connection with the cross feed conveyor when the box has been fed in by the group of low speed rollers.

3. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including a plurality of cross feed conveyors, each of the cross feed conveyors being provided thereon with the pressure fluid supply station having pressure applying heads for supplying the pressure fluid.

4. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pressure applying head comprises a nozzle connected to a pressure fluid supply line and sealing means for sealing the mouth of the bottle with the nozzle inserted in the bottle.

5. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pressure fluid is water and the pressure fluid supply station is divided into a water supply station and a pressure applying station, the water supply station having nozzles connected to a water supply line, the'pressure applying station having the pressure applying heads, the cross feed conveyors being adapted to transport the bottle-containing boxes to the respective stations in succession and stopping the boxes temporarily at the stations respectively.

6. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pressure applying head includes a nozzle connected to a pressure fluid supply line and sealing means comprising an annular packing fitted around the distal end of the nozzle and clamp means for clamping and compressing the annular packing from above and thereunder to cause the packing to expand outwardly radially.

7. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pressure applying head includes a nozzle connected to a pressure fluid supply line and sealing means comprising an annular packing fitted around the distal end of the nozzle and clamp means for the packing, the clamp means comprising said nozzle adapted for upward and downward movement and a stationary sleeve fitted around said nozzle to permit the upward and downward movement of said nozzle, the annular packing being clamped between a stepped portion in the outer periphery of said nozzle and the lower end face of the stationary sleeve so as to be expanded outwardly radially by the upward movement of said nozzle.

8. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including a water supply head, wherein each of the pressure applying head and water supply head has a bottle guide upwardly and downwardly movable and urged downwardly all the time, the bottle guide serving to guide the mouth of the bottle by its downwardly flaring opening so as to permit the nozzle to be correctly inserted into the bottle.

9. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein a lift plate is provided at the pressure fluid supply station for pushing the bottles to the heads respectively. i

Claims

1. An apparatus for testing pressure resistance of bottles of the case-in type comprising a cross feed conveyor to be driven intermittently by an intermittently driving means for transporting bottle-containing boxes and temporarily stopping each of the boxes at a pressure fluid supply station, pressure applying heads disposed at the pressure fluid supply station on the conveyor and identical in number and arrangement to the bottles in the box for supplying a pressure fluid to the bottles stopped at the station to conduct a pressure resistance test, a feed conveyor for supplying the bottle-containing boxes onto the cross feed conveyor in timed relation to the intermittent travel of the latter conveyor, and a delivery conveyor for receiving bottle-containing boxes from the cross feed conveyor after the bottles have been tested and transferring the boxes to the next process.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the feed conveyor comprises a portion composed of a group of low speed rollers, another portion composed of a group of high speed rollers, and idle rollers disposed between the two portions, the feed conveyor being so positioned as to operate in a direction at right angles to the direction of travel of cross feed conveyor, the portion of high speed roller group being connected to the starting end of the cross feed conveyor, the delivery conveyor being so disposed as to operate in a direction at right angles to the direction of travel of the cross feed conveyor, the cross feed conveyor being connected at is terminal end to the starting end of the delivery conveyor, a stopper being disposed between the idle rollers of the feed conveyor and the first of the group of high speed rollers for temporarily stopping the box on the feed conveyor at its connection with the cross feed conveyor when the box has been fed in by the group of low speed rollers.

5. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pressure fluid is water and the pressure fluid supply station is divided into a water supply station and a pressure applying station, the water supply station having nozzles connected to a water supply line, the pressure applying station having the pressure applying heads, the cross feed conveyors being adapted to transport the bottle-containing boxes to the respective stations in succession and stopping the boxes temporarily at the stations respectively.

9. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein a lift plate is provided at the pressure fluid supply station for pushing the bottles to the heads respectively.